Revamped Neighbourhood Police Post Launch

The team was invited to attend the launch of the Revamped Neighbourhood Police Posts at West Coast yesterday. After a couple of months of brainstorming and hard work put in last year, we were quite excited to see how much of the ideas were actually implemented.




















To recap, the competition brief was to suggest ideas for automating certain police services, which would then free police staff from under-utilised police posts to patrol the streets and other core policing duties.

























Our team's concept utilised several technological features such as videoconferencing and touch screen interfaces to create a safe, transparent and user friendly environment. There were however concerns raised about certain features such as the safe room which was eventually not implemented, but other ideas were given the green light (a little to our surprise). The final concept combined ideas from other teams and police feedback, such as the inclusion of community areas and partnerships with grassroots organisations.
















The e-kiosk implementation was surprisingly similar to the proposed concept, with guided screens and videoconferencing to assist in crime reporting. This allows for centralized collation of data which frees up manpower. We were concerned about budgets in the original design and put in screens around 24 inch, but the implemented screens are huge and elderly-friendly . Possibly more work could be put into the interface organization as I feel it is too spread out at the moment, but pretty impressive work considering it only took about 1 year to implement.
















The lost and found drop box was another surprise to us as many concerns were raised over the potential danger of items. This is mitigated by having to register using ID and also surveillance, and will bring a lot of convenience to users reporting found items.

Check out at the police video here as well as the press report.

Overall we were very impressed by how close the implementation was, though there certainly is more room for improvement which should be ironed out as the concept rolls out. The police are currently stationed to help users during the transition period, together with community volunteers at Radin Mas, West Coast and Marsiling NPPs, so pop by to take a look if you're around :)