Tendring District Council

Tendring District Council is a local authority in the north east of Essex. With its administrative headquarters based in the town of Clacton-on-Sea, the council covers an area that borders Colchester and Suffolk to the north and west, and across to the port of Harwich in the north east.

Providing visible patrols is a key part of the Anti-Social Behaviour and Safer Communities team’s role. Officers’ safety is paramount, and it’s critical that patrol teams have the ability to call for back up and liaise with colleagues and partners efficiently when dealing with incidents of anti-social behaviour and disorder.

The team found itself in a position where it had no mobile radio support for its officers. It had previously used an older digital radio system the council had hired from Brentwood Communications. But as it started not meeting operational needs, the hire contract wasn’t renewed.

It was clear that using personal mobile phones whilst out on patrol wasn’t an adequate solution, either. Mobile coverage was poor in some areas of the town, especially the seafront when large crowds gathered in the summer. And mobile phones are not the most convenient devices to use in critical situations, anyway.

As Adam McGoldrick, Anti-social Behaviour/Community Safety Officer, explained: “We were looking to improve communication between teams and officers. The old system we had hired in the past would only work in set areas and had major black spot areas across the District. But we wanted something that would enable quick communication without the need to reach for your phone, unlock and dial numbers.”

After discussions with Adam McGoldrick, it was clear the team needed a two way radio system that provides high reliability across a wide, built-up area where signal coverage for both conventional radio and mobile was known to be an issue, we suggested trying IDARO smart radios.

IDARO works on data networks rather than conventional radio frequencies. Operating on mobile 3G, 4G and 5G, IDARO offers the benefit of universal coverage. The limited range of traditional two way radio is no longer a problem, while retaining all the advantages of simple one-touch, one-to-many calling, as well as resilience and reliability.

Even better, IDARO radios don’t only work on mobile. They will switch to Wi-Fi seamlessly when required, providing a perfect back up.

The Tendring Safe Communities team was impressed, and ended up hiring eight Telo TE580 radios fitted with IDARO SIMs and the IDARO app.

Adam explained the impact they have had. “IDARO has allowed officers to stay in contact during their working day safe in the knowledge that should they require emergency assistance, they can activate their SOS button, and this will alert other officers who will be in a better position to either respond or call for assistance. It has also provided officers with a direct link to our CCTV control room.”

“The versatility of using the roaming SIM card or WiFi has been a big benefit. For example, our seafronts team in the summer has to battle with poor phone single down on the prom. But there is public WIFI in that area of town. This keeps them connected at all times.”