EU and ministry to invest €1.8 million in e-Police system
The European Union and the Ministry of the Interior will invest €1.8 million in the third stage of the development of Estonia’s new e-Police system. According to the ministry, e-Police will be faster, more practical, and include more information than the dated current system.
The budget of the third stage of the project is €1,797,085, of which just over €1.3 million will be covered by the European Union’s internal security fund. The remainder will be covered out of the state budget.
The project includes building a solution that will display events and calls on a digital map as well as the digitization of the paperwork officers have to fill in related to going on patrol. So far this was done by hand.
E-Police will replace m-Kairi, the system the Estonian police have used for the last 12 years.
“The new system is noticeably faster than its predecessor, more user-friendly, and has more options. With e-Police the average request takes just three seconds, which is an important leap forward, considering that police work includes having to check information on the move,” the Ministry of the Interior’s deputy secretary general for public order and migration policy, Raivo Küüt, said.
With the old system, officers can request information about an individual’s identity, vehicle data, previous arrests and penalties, individuals wanted by the police, and other related data, while e-Police will add other subjects like firearms permits, visa, and property information.
Together with the new system, the ministry’s IT and development center SMIT will also replace the somewhat dated computers currently installed in the police’s patrol cars and other vehicles. The new tablets to be introduced are dust and shock proof and can be used outside the vehicle as well.
Officers moving on foot previously had to radio for information, which took a lot of time, Küüt pointed out. Now they could simply carry along the tablet.
SMIT is working on the development of the e-Police system in stages, which allows it to adapt the new solution to the needs and requests of the police. The new system is already used in more than 200 patrol cars, to be installed in over 400 police vehicles by the end of the year.
Editor: Dario Cavegn