City of Nottingham Drives Strategy to Cut Retail Crime by 26% in 3 Years on Motorola Two-Way Radio and DCRS Shopwatch Scheme

“Outsourcing the management of Nottingham Businesses Against Crime to DCRS saves us the equivalent of one full-time staff member.” – Gary Roe, Retail Crime Prevention Coordinator, Nottingham City Council

Nottingham, regional capital of the East Midlands with a population of 630,000, has reduced theft against shops, businesses and leisure establishments using a shop and pubwatch scheme based on Motorola GP640 and GP680 radios. One of the UK’s fastest growing cities, with £3.5 billion currently being invested in its infrastructure and built environment, Nottingham has two major retail complexes and more than 250 licensed premises within a three-mile radius of the city centre. More than 150 shops, pubs, clubs and restaurants are using the Motorola radios, supplied and maintained by DCRS, and this number is set to increase sharply in the next 12 months.

Nottingham Businesses Against Crime (NBAC), part of the city’s Crime and Drugs Partnership, was set up five years ago to allow retailers and publicans to alert each other and the police to criminal activity or the presence of known troublemakers.

The scheme’s success meant that the single-channel system, which covered both the north and south parts of the city, was often congested, resulting in members being unable to transmit timely messages to other users.

In 2006 the City Council commissioned DCRS to install a four-channel trunked solution that could provide virtual dedicated channels for the three main user groups and local police, while maximising system capacity through dynamic frequency allocation. The trunked network was designed, developed and implemented in three months and went live over a two-day changeover period. Linked to CCTV control rooms in Nottingham’s Victoria and Broadmarsh shopping and leisure centres, the system uses Fylde Micro MPT repeaters to boost signal strength and ensure high quality audio performance across the entire city.

Motorola Chosen for Reliability and Performance

The GP640 and GP680 hand portables were chosen by the Council, a long-term user of Motorola radio equipment, for their reliability, durability, extensive feature set and value for money. “Choosing radios from the market leader gives us the peace of mind that comes from using the best equipment available to provide a safe city centre environment,” says Gary Roe, retail crime prevention coordinator, Nottingham City Council. “We used Motorola radios for NBAC right from the outset and scheme members have always been very happy with their ease of use and performance quality.”

Shop assistants, retail managers and security guards use the GP640 radio’s one-touch functionality to communicate with all users in their group and alert them to suspicious activity. The radio’s time-out timer ensures efficient use of radio channels by limiting the amount of time for which users can transmit. Around 140 GP640s are used by NBAC members and the Council is continually adding to its stock to supply new joiners.

CCTV controllers in the Victoria and Broadmarsh centres and on-duty police officers are equipped with GP680s which have direct-dial and contact list for one-to-one calls, together with an alpha-numeric display that gives the caller‘s identity and alerts the user to missed calls. The GP680’s talk group select mode means controllers can transmit to all user groups on the system while the scanning feature enables traffic to be monitored across the network to ensure that only legitimate users are transmitting messages. Seventy GP680s have been purchased for the night time economy for use by publicans, bar staff and security teams. This group also uses the GP680’s ability to send pre-defined text messages to keep everyone advised of potential problems that may occur during the evening.

Flexible, Dynamic Programming

Motorola’s advanced features improve operating efficiency and flexibility to adapt to changing user needs. Dynamic channel regrouping provides over-the-air reconfiguration of both GP640s and GP680s, which allows talk groups and preferences to be changed while radios are being used in the field. Electronic Serial Number (ESN) validation protects against unauthorised use of radios that are mislaid or stolen. As soon as its loss is reported to DCRS or the CCTV control centre, the radio is deactivated remotely. If the radio is subsequently found it can be reactivated immediately.