Charnwood Borough Council covers a 108-square mile area between Derby, Nottingham and Leicester and is based in the borough’s largest town, Loughborough. The local authority’s civil parking enforcement officers are tasked with reducing congestion, keeping roads obstruction-free for emergency access, ensuring parking space turnover and carrying out high visibility patrols for public safety. Instant communications and tracking solutions are essential for officer safety and coordination while on patrol across a large jurisdiction.
“We operate over a large borough with some challenging locations where traditional radios won’t work without significant investment on repeater masts and infrastructure. Storm’s PTT solution, provided by Leversedge, suited our needs, not only by utilising existing mobile data networks but also by offering valuable mapping software for lone worker support.“
Scott Sims. Street environment manager at Charnwood Borough Council
Challenge
Charnwood Borough Council sought to equip its parking enforcement officers with improved communication abilities in a region with some hard-to-reach locations. The local authority needed an affordable solution that provided instant, individual and group voice communication as well as precise locating capabilities for officer safety. Traditional radio systems required costly hardware investments like repeater masts to enable reliable functionality in all areas.
Solution
Leversedge, a leading supplier of voice and data communications solutions, recommended Storm’s push-to-talk (PTT), powered by Mobile Tornado. The solution is ideal because it is able to leverage existing mobile networks to avoid expensive infrastructure costs. Storm’s PTT application enables instant voice communication, push to message, image and video sharing, geo-fencing, location tracking and SOS alerts. The workforce management solution enables workforces, including lone workers, to be managed in a simple and effective way. Charnwood Borough Council equipped its parking enforcement officers with RugGear725 devices – Android handsets rugged beyond military standard and optimised with Storm’s push-to-talk over cellular technologies. The local authority used Storm’s dispatch console to ensure the safety of staff on the streets, communicate instantly with individuals or groups and direct operatives to locations where needed.
Results
Storm’s PTT solution, which is powered by Mobile Tornado, delivered enhanced critical communications and safety protections for parking patrols across the borough.
Key improvements included:
• Expanded communications using existing mobile infrastructure, thereby avoiding expensive investments associated with two-way radio systems.
• Range of features on one device to avoid the need to use multiple devices.
• Rugged smartphones for reliability.
• Improved supervisor coordination.
• Individual and group push-to-talk abilities.
• Emergency alert activation with precise GPS locating to protect parking enforcement officers.
• The combination of instant, reliable communication, detailed location positioning, SOS alerts and rugged devices increased parking enforcement efficiency
while prioritising officer safety.
Streamlined coordination translated to better public services regarding parking availability, traffic flow and community patrols.