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Project Chorist
Project partners visit Metropolitan Police Service to aid understanding of business processes in live command and control situations
Earlier this year, Kevin Robson, European Projects Manager, BAPCO, brought a group of CHORIST Project partners to the Metropolitan Police (Met) Central Communications Command at Lambeth.
The purpose of the visit was to help the technology partners understand the business processes involved in live command and control situations, and the Met visit followed similar excursions to the Civil Protection Control Centre in Rome and the Cleveland Police Communications Centre in the North East of England.
Commenting, Kevin Robson said, “On the day we were hosted by Inspecor Paul Roach, Staff Offficer to the centre Commander, and Inspector Sam Simpson, the Special Operations Room (SOR) Manager.
“After we had given a brief presentation on the aims and objectives of CHORIST, we were then provided over a period of almost three hours, with a detailed overview of the call handling and dispatch structure and processes used by the MPS. Following this we visited the SOR, where Inspector Sam Simpson gave a presentation on the MPS response to the 7/7 London bombings and ongoing activities relating to planning for the 2012 London Olympics.”
There followed a frank round the table discussion in which CHORIST partners sought to improve their understanding of how a large emergency response organisation plans for major incidents and events, and of how the risk awareness and assessment tools that are to be provided as part of the CHORIST solution could help to improve their decision making and response.
“There is no doubt that this visit changed perceptions and provided a real insight into the operational environment that CHORIST is seeking to improve. Whilst the MPS continue to learn from their experiences of handling major emergencies, the visit demonstrated that they were in a far stronger position to deal with spontaneous and pre-planned major events, whether naturally occurring or man-made in nature, than many similar organisations elsewhere across Europe. This being said, they were keen to learn from the experience of other agencies who are also providing input into the CHORIST user requirements and operational scenarios, and have asked to be kept appraised of progress as the technology solutions for CHORIST are developed. In addition Sam Simpson has volunteered to act as a member of the CHORIST User Advisory Board,” added Robson.
All partners agreed that the experience had been extremely worthwhile, and had exceeded expectations in terms of the knowledge they had each gained. BAPCO is grateful to Commander Steve MacDonald and his team for facilitating the visit.
About Project Chorist
The tools for the management of environmental risk events at European level are currently very efficient, yet there are a number of areas that could be improved. The monitoring, preparation and response phases of events such as natural hazards and industrial accidents require that citizens, public safety professional and authorities are able to communicate efficiently and effectively. CHORIST, and EC 6th Framework Programme Project, is focussed on the overall communication infrastructure including the alert systems that warn authorities, the communication means between authorities and citizens, and the rapid deployable emergency telecommunication system for public safety responders. The project and the emerging technology options to support a demonstration system will be deployed in Spain during 2009.
