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West Yorkshire Police to strengthen secure nationwide information sharing with Siemens Enterprise Communications
Britain’s fourth largest police force is the first to procure identity & access technology using NPIA framework in readiness for upcoming Police National Database
Silvie Casanova
Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG
+1 (978) 848-4617
silvie.casanova@siemens-enterprise.com
London, United Kingdom — Dec 8, 2009
Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN Group) announces that West Yorkshire Police, Britain’s fourth largest police force, is the first to procure smart card technology via the National Policing Improvement Authority (NPIA) Identity and Access Management (IAM) framework.
The solution will allow West Yorkshire’s officers access to Central Services (IAM CS), established by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) for secure information sharing as an essential foundation of the upcoming Police National Database (PND), due to be launched in 2010.
West Yorkshire’s decision to procure an end-to-end identity and access (IAM) solution via the SEN Group framework demonstrates a commitment to sharing confidential and potentially critical case information with police forces nationwide.
As framework holder the SEN Group’s solution includes components and expertise from Sysec and ActivIdentity. It will provide West Yorkshire with 11,000 smart cards, a card management system, public key infrastructure, card issuing machines and other components that adhere to the IAM CS standards. This will ensure West Yorkshire staff are able to access the upcoming PND, a central and highly secure resource for police forces across the UK to share case information. The agreement was signed on September 30th 2009 and the full system will be rolled out by April 2010.
When implemented within a force, IAM will allow a single user to access different national police systems potentially from any location. This also means only those police officers with the correct high-assurance credentials can access the Police National Database. One aim is to reduce the time spent returning to police stations to access vital policing information and so increases the time spent on frontline policing.
In addition, the multi-function smart cards provided will eventually be deployed enterprise-wide within West Yorkshire police force to regulate access to local information resources and police buildings. Other benefits include secure exchange of electronic data between forces and the criminal justice system and savings on time and costs in areas such as password resetting.
The IAM CS initiative is a critical step in enhancing efficiency and information sharing between police forces nationwide. Easier sharing of information and intelligence will directly impact frontline policing by ensuring that police officers get the information they need, when they need it. As an organisation, the force is keen to embrace technology to facilitate productivity – smart cards and the upcoming PND are a perfect way to share sensitive data with our colleagues in other forces.
Craig Pollard, Criminal Justice Sector Manager, Siemens Enterprise Communications says: “West Yorkshire’s decision to implement the enterprise IAM initiative demonstrates their forward-looking commitment to ensuring that the right people get access to the right information at the right time, securely.
“The Soham murders underlined the importance of sharing police information nationwide and this will become a reality as the PND launches in 2010. In the meantime, access to the IAM CS will ensure that the correct infrastructure is available for police forces to enable secure access, with a single, simple framework procurement process in place to ensure a streamlined approach.”
About West Yorkshire Police
West Yorkshire Police serve approximately 2.1 million people living in one of the five metropolitan districts. The physical area, of some 2000 square kilometres or 780 square miles, contains the West Yorkshire conurbation and a network of motorway and trunk roads which allow easy access to and from other population centres.
The area is policed by around 5,600 police officers and 3,600 support staff, including Police Community Support Officers. This makes the Force the fourth largest in the country.
The Force area is very varied combining busy cities and towns with quiet villages and picturesque rural locations. People are equally varied and represent a diverse range of ethnic cultural and economic backgrounds.
For this reason, the policing is delivered from 10 separate police divisions, providing most of the day-to-day policing services performed through the county. There are also teams of specialist police and support staff personnel based at headquarters and at various other locations around the Force.
The overwhelming majority of police officers are engaged in operational duties that contribute towards the community safety for the people of West Yorkshire.
About Siemens Enterprise Communications Group (SEN Group)
The SEN Group is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning “Open Communications” approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, protecting investments and delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath™ commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt UC. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, SEN Group companies include Siemens Enterprise Communications, Cycos, and Enterasys Networks.
For more information about the SEN Group or Enterasys please visit
www.siemens-enterprise.com or
www.enterasys.com.
Note: Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co K.G. is a trademark licensee of Siemens AG. HiPath, OpenOffice, OpenScape and OpenStage are registered trademarks of Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co K.G. or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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