Police operation centres: from a traditional to preventive policing model

Police operation centres: from a traditional to preventive policing model

The rigid hierarchical paramilitary nature of policing has led to an inadequate and reactionary business and operating model. Especially affected is the police operation centre or communication centre when it comes to service delivery. Moreover, market competition provides industries with a drive to innovate and create lean solutions for service delivery. Currently, when policing is feeling the competitive pressure of funding measures from the government budget, a drive to do more with less is propelling change. The unpredictable nature of policing is closely mirrored by the unpredictable nature of disruptions faced by airlines. This parallel drew the researcher to explore the structures and operations of the airline industries operation centres and examine how they create and manage an efficient operation in a disruptive changing environment as compared to policing. Understanding what learnings have the two industries made in design and scope of their operation centres and appreciating how the onset of IoT data was assisting them with their daily operations and how it is being harnessed are important aims. To understand how an operation centre can affect the overall service delivery of an organisation, this study undertook a systemic review of academic literature of airline industry and policing operation centres. It also observed the functional operation centres and gained access to industries professionals to gain a set of recommendations for implementation into the enhancement of Policing Operation Centres.