Vodafone develops Mobility Innovation Lab and Experience Centre with the NZ Police

Police Minister Michael Woodhouse, Vodafone CEO Russell Stanners and Police Commissioner Mike Bush at the opening of the Mobility Innovation Lab and Experience Centre in Wellington.

Vodafone has developed the Mobility Innovation Lab and Experience Centre with the New Zealand Police.

The facility, located at a Vodafone building in Newtown, will provide a centre to foster innovation, collaboration and encourage rapid deployment of ideas and tools that support day-to-day operational policing.

Vodafone NZ CEO Russell Stanners, Police Commissioner Mike Bush and Stephen Crombie, Executive Director; Information, Technology and Systems at New Zealand Police at the opening of the Mobility Innovation Lab in Wellington.

This collaboration will help put the right tools and technology into frontline hands, making Police more mobile and visible to our communities and enhance police’s ability to prevent crime and reduce victimisation, says Russell Stanners, Vodafone New Zealand CEO.

As well as Vodafone and Police teams, the centre brings together key local and global partners such as Nokia (Finland), Airpoint (UK), Smudge (NZ) Intergraph (NZ/US) and BroadSoft (US).

Vodafone NZ CEO Russell Stanners and Police Commissioner Mike Bush

Other government agencies will be invited to participate at the centre, says Stanners.

“The idea was to have a space where we can take people out of their normal working environment, and create ideas and innovation,” says Sandra Pickering, technology executive at Vodafone.

The centre was laid out as an open plan, modern wireless workplace to encourage flexible working, explains Pickering.

Sandra Pickering, technology executive, Vodafone NZ and Reuben Bijl, director, Smudge

The centre has a fully contained 2/3/4G network where teams can develop and test mobility projects securely in a live environment.

She says the state of the art videoconferencing capability will facilitate dialogue with other police and Vodafone locations, partners and business, both locally and overseas.

Jake Attwood, community constable, NZ Police

The New Zealand Police has deployed more than 15,000 mobile devices, making it the largest private network fleet of Apple devices and the largest fleet of devices for any law enforcement agency in the world.

Stephen Crombie, executive director; information, technology and systems at New Zealand Police, says among the lessons from the deployment is to “design everything around the users, not the technology”.

Stephen Crombie, Executive Director; Information, Technology and Systems at New Zealand Police

Crombie says the mobile apps being used by the police, for instance, were developed with a real focus on the user experience.

Related:What corporates can learn from the NZ Police on ‘user focus’

“Make sure you make the best use of the very advanced technology that is available in the consumer market,” says Crombie.

“Organise your backend systems and information flow, so your systems don’t become a barrier to fast implementation of applications.”

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