Decision details

Deliver the replacement of 40 two-way radios used by Parking Civil Enforcement Officers (CEO) when patrolling within the community as lone workers. CEOs use radios as for personal safety against violence and aggression and effective deployment/resolution of issues with direct contact with all officers simultaneously. This equipment meets Health and Safety obligations for us to monitor staff safety.

The current radios utilise obsolete infrastructure with increased risk of downtime and this project will replace them with modern push to talk systems precuded by IT and managed internally.

The equipment includes an emergency alert to allow CEOs to request urgent assistance rapidly and discretely in the event of violence or aggression being directed towards them.

To fully approve £30k of capital budget, fully funded by Service Supported Borrowing

1) To not replace existing infrastructure - Not replacing existing underlying infrastructure continues to expose staff to risk of service disruption, impacting staff safety, service and council reputation and income.
2) To replace radios with standard mobile phones - This does not provide instant contact with one or all officers and requires a delay for connection to be established and calls to be answered. It does not have an instant override for an officer in an emergency, as well as facing connection delays, may experience an engaged tone. This is not a recommended solution for a group of 30 officers.