National Digital Policing – CCTV Hub Feasibility
British Transport Police CCTV Hub Feasibility
Customer: Network Rail
CLIENT BRIEF
Sarax were given a remit based on a conceptual vision of a CCTV hub. Initial challenges included understanding what existed in terms of people, process and technology, and assembling a business case in order to obtain funding.
WHAT WE DID
Fast time discovery focussed on:
- What existed in terms of Railway CCTV assets and how and where were they accessed
- What existed in terms of BTP live and forensic facilities, what assets, technology, people and processes did they have; what worked; what didn’t; and what best practice could be gleaned from these experienced operators
- What technology was available and how could it be deployed for a practical outcome
- What funding opportunities existed.
HOW WE DID IT
Sarax carried out site visits, completing condition and asset surveys alongside staff and management interviews. From these we recorded the assets and best practice, and mapped networks and processes. Our review considered if things could be done better.
We looked at the technology market to understand if any products were available ‘off the shelf’ and how we could leverage them into a turnkey solution.
We involved staff so that solutions were workable, appropriate and practical. Our early and continuous engagement in peer group activity secured buy-in throughout the entire project. Staff were aware of the advantages of what were often different ways of working than they had been used to, leading to transformational change.
THE WORKS
Our feasibility stage revealed:
- The current media management system was fragmented, disjointed and inefficient. There was exponential media storage growth, usually physical (e.g. DVDs)
- Health and safety was compromised, particularly in equipment rooms
- There were a multitude of legacy operating systems and technologies
- Network revenue costs could be reduced
- Forensic integrity could easily be compromised
- There was no standard evidential product for presentation to the court, and no standards as to how that evidential product was arrived at
- The response to both operational and investigative requests was fragmented and often inefficient. The recording and management of workload was ad-hoc, and peaks and troughs in workload could be extreme
- Despite the multiplicity of sites, redundancy and contingency planning for outages did not exist
- There was no clear management structure, limiting personal advancement and resulting in disparate career opportunities for people doing the same job
- BTP had limited influence in the deployment or upgrade of rail CCTV assets, with little input from BTP operators. Consequently, synergies with crime prevention and detection, often simple and cost neutral, were missed when systems were being designed
- Improvements would mean multiple advantages for the police, Network Rail, the Train Operating Companies and the public.
It was clear that there was a business case for a CCTV Hub, and that this was sufficiently compelling for Network Rail to fund the work. The conceptual vision of a CCTV hub moved closer to reality in the design stage.
TOP 5 BENEFITS
- Transformational change borne out of a thorough discovery phase of what worked, what didn’t, and how best practice could inform the new solution
- Quantifying and articulating all the issues, for the first time
- Building of a compelling business case
- Securing funding
- Securing staff buy in to transformative ways of working, from the outset.
VALUE ADD
- True ownership of the issues across all aspects of the project, including when beyond our remit
- Ensuring that an entire solution could be built, without any gaps in requirement.