SA Police tablet rollout set to begin in earnest

Panasonic Toughbook tablets will be installed in police cars across South Australia as a replacement for fixed in-car Mobile Computing Application (MCA) devices.

The rollout, which is expected be completed by 2020, follows a trial in the Elizabeth Local Service Area. Every car in the Elizabeth area has had one of the tablets fitted.

The state government has earmarked $7.4 million over five years for the rollout, which will see the tablets fitted to some 680 cars; 175 extra tablets will also be available for police officers.

The device chosen is a Windows-based Panasonic Toughbook FZ-G1 MKIII.

The tablets will allow police officers to undertake up to 95 per cent of duties while in the field, the state government said, delivering annual productivity gains estimated at $3.3 million.

Tablets will be progressively rolled out as SA Police cars replaced, which occurs every 90,000km.

“We have been able to almost eliminate the need for our frontline officers to return to their stations to complete paperwork, providing them with technology where they have, in effect, a mobile office,” SAPOL Superintendent Scott Allison said in a statement.

Allison is the manager of the SA Police IS&T Innovation and Solutions Branch.

“This gives us the benefits of both ‘in-vehicle’ computing and the portability to capture, retrieve and submit information in the field. It'll be an enormous benefit to enter data into our systems without having to return to a desktop computer at a police station.”