Asset Management Case Studies

Hardcat at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Organisation:	Victoria Police
Industry:	Police
Location:	Australia

Victoria Police

Victoria Police is a large organization employing over 13,100 people, including Police, Public Servants and Protective Security Officers, serving the state of Victoria. With headquarters in Melbourne and with 328 police stations and other facilities statewide, Victoria Police provides support to the community 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

With the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games taking place in an atmosphere of heightened security concerns, Victoria Police needed to ensure strict control of weapons, radios and security passes being issued to thousands of Police and security staff each day at Games venues around the city.

The Issue

The 2006 Commonwealth Games was a major international event for the city of Melbourne. Staged over eleven days with athletes visiting from 71 countries and hundreds of thousands of spectators (including HRH Queen Elizabeth II) attending venues across the city, it required a major coordinated security effort to ensure the safety of all attending. In the tight security climate, rigorous tracking of items such as police weapons, security passes and other materials was essential.

However, because of the large numbers of staff involved (up to 500 Police members or security staff at any shift changeover), the system had to allow the recording of items being issued and returned to be as fast and efficient as possible. It also needed to operate from multiple venues, but allow information on asset deployment to be shared real-time between venues.

The scale of the problem was compounded in the months leading up to the Games, when terrorist activities overseas caused the Victorian Government to take the decision to increase the security presence at the Games. This meant that even more security staff and equipment than originally anticipated would be involved.

The Solution

Sections of the Victoria Police have been using the Hardcat fixed asset management solution to track the issue and return of weapons since 1995. The system has been used for a variety of purposes, ranging from tracking of weapons through to maintenance of breathalysers.

For the Commonwealth Games, Hardcat supplied Victoria Police with a 24 concurrent user solution which ran across a number of 'temporary' venues set up for the duration of the Games. At each venue, the Hardcat operator used barcode scanners to record the ID tag of the person being issued equipment and the barcode number of the piece of equipment being issued at the start of each shift. A similar process was followed to record the return of equipment at the end of each shift.

The system was designed to allow this information to be recorded with an absolute minimum of keyboard or mouse input, to allow the fastest possible recording of data.

The Benefits

The system faced its first test on opening night, and passed with flying colors as 969 items of equipment were issued to police and security staff in just 25 minutes.

This fast throughput continued throughout the Games, and after their conclusion no fewer than 65,000 transactions had been recorded for 9,000 equipment items to 13,000 staff. The Hardcat system did not fail at any stage during the Games, and because of its performance the Victoria Police were able to provide a safe environment for all in attendance.

The system also enabled reporting to find any anomalies such as items being issued but not returned, ensuring against potential security breaches.

After the Games had concluded, the system also enabled a range of statistical reporting to be presented to Victoria Police command regarding the various transactions made. It also facilitated the orderly return of all items to their originating sections within Victoria Police, as original ownership of items was one of the important details recorded for each and every asset item in the database.