West Yorkshire Police is ensuring fair and transparent allocation of police resources across its nine divisions with a new online resource and logistics management system.

The bespoke force resource management system (Forms), created by internet development agency Eleventeenth, provides a cost- and time-efficient means of managing resources for the thousands of events handled by the force each year, including football matches, festivals and Royal visits.

Forms is a central, secure point of contact for resource management, offering an instant snapshot of events and resources deployed across the West Yorkshire region. It is designed to ensure that no division is overstretched or providing resources at disproportionate levels to other divisions, in line with the target fairness allocation figure which exists within the police force.

‘We have nine territorial divisions and geographically they are not the same size and do not have the same resources. It would be unfair if we had a main event and drew from each division evenly and Forms helps prevent unfair resource allocation,’ said Inspector Graham Armitage, head of force logistics at West Yorkshire Police.

The allocations process was previously managed manually by the logistics division, with assignments made using spreadsheets, email, fax and phone calls.

‘The majority of other forces tend to use spreadsheets to help manage allocation of resources, but the problem is access is only available to the people who use the spreadsheets. Forms gives us openness at every level and in every division,’ said Armitage.

‘It has simplified a complex process and made it quicker with everyone being able to see how it works, and it addresses divisions’ concerns that they are treated fairly as drawing on their resources affects their ability to meet targets.’

Armitage says the force has a central accessible online database of all upcoming events, with resource allocations, which is useful for planning.

A predictive element has been developed for Forms, so we can better understand what resources we will need to meet future demand, says Armitage.

‘We are now better placed to predict and resolve potential conflicts in resourcing events before they arise, responding to the needs of the public, whilst remaining within budget.’