Snippets from some of the things we have been working on in February.
Collaboration and continuous improvement – staff intranet
Improving digital services is not limited to our public facing services. Refining internal processes and platforms can also aid the public by reducing time spent by officers and staff using these systems, and allowing them to focus on other priorities.
As an example, after receiving feedback from call handlers we have improved the search results for Clare’s and Sarah’s Law on our staff intranet. This means relevant information about both schemes is more prominent in internal searches, allowing staff to find information quicker when advising the public.
Form updates
Delivering digital forms is at the heart of our team activity. Whether creating forms to digitise existing services, or providing online solutions for new processes, the objective is the same:
“Improve citizen experience through delivery of a high quality responsive digital service.”
During February we released two new forms and saw the wider roll out of a recently created form:
Send Evidence to an Officer
Our ‘Send Evidence to an Officer’ form, which went live in January, saw a wider roll out across the force in February.
The form allows officers to request evidence from the public as part of an active incident or investigation. Digital collection of evidence means officers do not need to physically pick-up data stored on hardware such as USB sticks.
We have already received some great feedback from an officer, demonstrating the value this form provides:
“It is amazing and has saved me a massive amount of time.”
Submit video or images to the Collisions Unit
The ‘Submit video or images to the Collisions Unit’ form went live mid-February and is used to aid ongoing road incident investigations.
Working with the Collisions Unit to understand what information would be useful, we delivered a form which enables the public to submit videos or images directly to the team. This means if a witness has footage of a road accident, the officer dealing with the case can give them a link to the form in order to capture the footage.
Apply for a place on the Citizens Academy
The Citizens Academy allows members of the public to experience the day-to-day workings of the police first hand.
In order to digitise the application process, we worked with the Local Policing team to create the ‘Apply for a place on the Citizens Academy’ form. When applications are open, the public can use this form to apply for a place in the Academy.
No immediate emergency
We received a significant piece of feedback during February on our ‘Accident on the Road’ form:
“I may not have reported the incident if not for the form, as I would feel uncomfortable using resources when there was no immediate emergency.”
This feedback sums up why it is important to provide users with alternative methods of contacting us, aside from the traditional methods of calling or visiting a police station.
In this instance, there was no immediate emergency. However, it is important the public are able to contact us for their own wellbeing, but also so we can use the data captured in this form to learn about the types of incidents which are taking place on our roads.