Thames Valley Police has signed a £10m, five-year managed contract to upgrade voice and data network and cut costs.

The police force says the deal with managed service provider Affiniti will save more than £1m a year, which it will re-invest in its communications infrastructure.

‘Previously, we had a six-and-a-half-year contract with BT. When that ended we decided we needed to improve the efficiency of the network, and reduce costs,’ says Simon Chandler, the force’s communications and infrastructure manager.

‘We wanted to take advantage of the changes in the managed service market in general, both from a management and technology point of view.’

Under the Affiniti deal, Thames Valley will use voice over IP (VoIP), converged networks, integrated CCTV and patched feeds from helicopter-mounted cameras.

The integration of 14 CCTV centres around the Thames Valley operating area is particularly significant, allowing officers to send live feeds to police control centres anywhere in the force’s operational area, says Chandler.

‘We will now be able to manage an incident much more efficiently than we would on the old traditional method, where we would have had a telephone link and some control over the CCTV feeds,’ he said.

‘The video is now integrated into the network, so CCTV can track offenders as they leave an incident, direct police officers and vehicles to the person and get snapshot pictures of them.’