CollaborationKent and Essex CollaborationEssex Police began collaborating with Kent Police in 2007 and the Kent/Essex Collaboration Team was formed.
Much has already been achieved to date and both organisations are committed to identifying further ways in which collaboration can help to provide better policing services for the citizens of Kent and Essex.
This collaboration agreement does not preclude either force from pursuing other collaborative options, either within their respective regions or with other partners.
The journey so farIn January 2007, the police authority chairs and Chief Constables of both Essex Police and Kent Police met to discuss the potential for collaboration and, three months later, the first joint police authority meeting was held, at which the decision was made to pursue 'full collaboration on Operational Functions and Support Services, whilst maintaining operational independence'.
Since then, the collaboration programme has achieved a number of successes, including the sharing of air support and marine services and the formation of a pioneering joint IT Directorate – the first of its kind in England and Wales - which is developing a comprehensive IT infrastructure to support both forces.
This will enable police officers and staff from both counties to work cohesively and more efficiently.
In 2010, together, we also created one of the largest joint serious and organised crime units in the UK – the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate (SCD).
It consists of six key departments dedicated to tackling serious and organised criminality across both counties, including the investigation of murders and serious sexual assaults and the targeting of organised criminal groups, drug dealers and burglars.
This encompasses areas such as HR, Finance, Transport Services, Property Services, Procurement Services and business services centres.
In September 2012, a Section 22A Agreement was formally approved for the newly-established Support Services Directorate.
The main aim of collaboration is for both counties to benefit from an improved policing service through
Through our collaboration with Kent, we want to use our resources more effectively and put more officers on the front line, something the public always tell us they want.
This joint working – the Serious Crime and IT directorates – was formalised on September 30, 2010, when both forces and police authorities signed Section 23 Agreements confirming the terms under which they will collaborate. An earlier agreement, covering the provision by Essex Police of air support services to Kent Police, was in place from April 1, 2008, to September 30, 2012, when the National Police Air Service began.
Since the creation of the Kent/Essex Collaboration Programme in 2007, other significant benefits to both forces from collaborative working include the establishment of several Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) – covering such areas as specialist search, firearms intervention teams and specialist vehicles.
And reviews are carried out to identify areas where our business can be performed differently in order to provide significant improvements and/or alternatives to our service delivery and also areas where efficiencies can be made.
There have been significant financial benefits. By the end of the 2011/12 financial year, approximately £20.5million cost savings had been identified across both forces, of which approximately £9.5million had been realised.
One of the collaboration programme's strategic objectives is to deliver a further £12million savings to both forces by 2015 through joint working, in addition to enhancing their Protective Services capabilities, increasing resilience and reducing risk.
Collaboration is proving that large savings can be made but, more importantly, that our service to the public can be improved.
AthenaAthena is a web-based ‘single IT solution’ which can be described as taking a case ‘from report to court’. It comprises four main modules: Investigation, Intelligence, Custody and Case Preparation.
The Athena consortium consists of seven police forces – Essex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. This consortium approach benefits the member forces by sharing the costs and responsibilities of sourcing a suitable replacement for their current operational IT systems.
Athena is the largest-ever collaborative police IT project*. The benefits of this ‘single system’ will be many and varied, most significantly allowing the instant sharing of data across force boundaries and across interfaces with Criminal Justice processes and systems.
This will give front-line police officers and staff in member forces access to more detailed and up-to-date information, helping police to identify criminals more quickly and cut crime.
Thus, Athena will improve front-line policing and crime investigations – reducing threat and harm in our communities and helping to improve the service we provide to the public.
Information will be linked as soon as records are created, helping to build comprehensive ‘pictures’, both of suspects and of crime and incident patterns, more swiftly. This information can then be viewed across all forces using the system. Currently, police forces largely manage data on offenders, suspects, victims and incidents on different systems at a local level, which makes it a challenge to share information quickly with other forces.
Officers and staff at each phase of the criminal justice process – from report to court – will be able to view all records, appropriate to their role, for the suspect from each member force. This will mean that a suspect arrested for crimes committed in any of the Athena force areas may be dealt with for offences in one custody suite without the need for the suspect to be transferred between each force.
Time will be saved after a suspect is arrested, as those officers working in custody and preparing cases will automatically have access appropriate to their role to intelligence already held about a suspect.
And, in line with recommendations of the 2004 Bichard Inquiry, the new system will let each force share a much wider set of operational police data with officers and staff in other forces. Historically, such day-to-day police information has been shared between local forces upon request, which is both time-consuming and can result in delays.
The system will be managed centrally, in partnership with Northgate Information Systems, helping to save forces money by reducing the need for ongoing management of multiple IT systems.
Athena will replace up to ten existing police IT systems in each force, all of which cost money to maintain and upgrade and will eventually require replacing. The money the member forces are spending will be significantly less than that they would have to spend on replacing each individual existing IT system.
Other collaborationBoth Essex Police and Kent Police are engaged in collaboration, where beneficial, with other forces and other partners:
The opportunity of working collaboratively will be used to make efficiency savings, meet budget reductions, enhance resilience, improve capability or increase our Protective Services capability to protect the public.
Much has already been achieved to date and both organisations are committed to identifying further ways in which collaboration can help to provide better policing services for the citizens of Kent and Essex.
This collaboration agreement does not preclude either force from pursuing other collaborative options, either within their respective regions or with other partners.
The journey so farIn January 2007, the police authority chairs and Chief Constables of both Essex Police and Kent Police met to discuss the potential for collaboration and, three months later, the first joint police authority meeting was held, at which the decision was made to pursue 'full collaboration on Operational Functions and Support Services, whilst maintaining operational independence'.
Since then, the collaboration programme has achieved a number of successes, including the sharing of air support and marine services and the formation of a pioneering joint IT Directorate – the first of its kind in England and Wales - which is developing a comprehensive IT infrastructure to support both forces.
This will enable police officers and staff from both counties to work cohesively and more efficiently.
In 2010, together, we also created one of the largest joint serious and organised crime units in the UK – the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate (SCD).
It consists of six key departments dedicated to tackling serious and organised criminality across both counties, including the investigation of murders and serious sexual assaults and the targeting of organised criminal groups, drug dealers and burglars.
This encompasses areas such as HR, Finance, Transport Services, Property Services, Procurement Services and business services centres.
In September 2012, a Section 22A Agreement was formally approved for the newly-established Support Services Directorate.
The main aim of collaboration is for both counties to benefit from an improved policing service through
- more effective and efficient use of resources – including police officers and staff, buildings and vehicles etc
- achieving better value for money.
Through our collaboration with Kent, we want to use our resources more effectively and put more officers on the front line, something the public always tell us they want.
This joint working – the Serious Crime and IT directorates – was formalised on September 30, 2010, when both forces and police authorities signed Section 23 Agreements confirming the terms under which they will collaborate. An earlier agreement, covering the provision by Essex Police of air support services to Kent Police, was in place from April 1, 2008, to September 30, 2012, when the National Police Air Service began.
Since the creation of the Kent/Essex Collaboration Programme in 2007, other significant benefits to both forces from collaborative working include the establishment of several Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) – covering such areas as specialist search, firearms intervention teams and specialist vehicles.
And reviews are carried out to identify areas where our business can be performed differently in order to provide significant improvements and/or alternatives to our service delivery and also areas where efficiencies can be made.
There have been significant financial benefits. By the end of the 2011/12 financial year, approximately £20.5million cost savings had been identified across both forces, of which approximately £9.5million had been realised.
One of the collaboration programme's strategic objectives is to deliver a further £12million savings to both forces by 2015 through joint working, in addition to enhancing their Protective Services capabilities, increasing resilience and reducing risk.
Collaboration is proving that large savings can be made but, more importantly, that our service to the public can be improved.
AthenaAthena is a web-based ‘single IT solution’ which can be described as taking a case ‘from report to court’. It comprises four main modules: Investigation, Intelligence, Custody and Case Preparation.
The Athena consortium consists of seven police forces – Essex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. This consortium approach benefits the member forces by sharing the costs and responsibilities of sourcing a suitable replacement for their current operational IT systems.
Athena is the largest-ever collaborative police IT project*. The benefits of this ‘single system’ will be many and varied, most significantly allowing the instant sharing of data across force boundaries and across interfaces with Criminal Justice processes and systems.
This will give front-line police officers and staff in member forces access to more detailed and up-to-date information, helping police to identify criminals more quickly and cut crime.
Thus, Athena will improve front-line policing and crime investigations – reducing threat and harm in our communities and helping to improve the service we provide to the public.
Information will be linked as soon as records are created, helping to build comprehensive ‘pictures’, both of suspects and of crime and incident patterns, more swiftly. This information can then be viewed across all forces using the system. Currently, police forces largely manage data on offenders, suspects, victims and incidents on different systems at a local level, which makes it a challenge to share information quickly with other forces.
Officers and staff at each phase of the criminal justice process – from report to court – will be able to view all records, appropriate to their role, for the suspect from each member force. This will mean that a suspect arrested for crimes committed in any of the Athena force areas may be dealt with for offences in one custody suite without the need for the suspect to be transferred between each force.
Time will be saved after a suspect is arrested, as those officers working in custody and preparing cases will automatically have access appropriate to their role to intelligence already held about a suspect.
And, in line with recommendations of the 2004 Bichard Inquiry, the new system will let each force share a much wider set of operational police data with officers and staff in other forces. Historically, such day-to-day police information has been shared between local forces upon request, which is both time-consuming and can result in delays.
The system will be managed centrally, in partnership with Northgate Information Systems, helping to save forces money by reducing the need for ongoing management of multiple IT systems.
Athena will replace up to ten existing police IT systems in each force, all of which cost money to maintain and upgrade and will eventually require replacing. The money the member forces are spending will be significantly less than that they would have to spend on replacing each individual existing IT system.
Other collaborationBoth Essex Police and Kent Police are engaged in collaboration, where beneficial, with other forces and other partners:
- Essex with the Eastern Region police forces – Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. This includes participation in the Regional Asset Recovery Team, the Counter Terrorism Intelligence Unit, Eastern Regional Special Operations Unit, Disaster Victim Identification and Casualty Bureau, along with mutual aid support.
- Kent with the South East Region police forces – Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Thames Valley
- Essex in collaboration with Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, including property sharing at appropriate locations across Essex, thereby releasing capital and reducing building maintenance costs. Initiatives are in place at Brightlingsea,Tiptree, Wivenhoe and West Mersea, where the local neighbourhood policing teams share fire station premises. Other sites are being assessed for partnership opportunities.
- Kent in collaboration with Kent Fire and Rescue Service for the provision of emergency control room premises
The opportunity of working collaboratively will be used to make efficiency savings, meet budget reductions, enhance resilience, improve capability or increase our Protective Services capability to protect the public.