Secure Messenger for the Police

We have often written how a messenger like Teamwire can improve, accelerate and simplify the communication.

Teamwire, May 27 2017

Next to that, they emphasized the importance of messaging for the information exchange and productivity of enterprises, public authorities and any organization.

 

The trend away from e-mail and WhatsApp to a secure messenger for authorities is also very important for the police. Yesterday in Nuremberg, Germany, the government announced to introduce a secure messenger for the police in Bavaria. The messenger for the police is going to be fully rolled-out to all patrol officers in Bavaria and is going to support the forces in operations and missions. The aim of the introduction of the messenger is to supplement the digital radio and to improve the mission-critical communication of the police.

 

The messenger for the police is primarily used to quickly transfer digital content like photos, videos and documents to patrol officers and security forces. This is not possible with the digital radio. The messenger can directly transmit information of investigations, search photos and orders of missions and operations to the patrol officers (for example images of wanted or missing persons). Thereby mission-critical information reaches the patrol officers instantly and the information exchange within the police is improved.

 

The need for a police messenger has become obvious in several cases in recent times. In large police operations like the shooting rampage in Munich or the terrorist attack in Berlin the rapid exchange of search images can be very critical. The group chats and channels of a messenger help to connect the patrol officers independent of their location and simplify the communication in operations and missions.

 

A messenger like WhatsApp is of course not compliant with data protection and not secure enough for the use of the police and authorities. This is why the police and authorities need a secure alternative to WhatsApp. The police in Bavaria attaches great importance to data protection and data security. On the one hand this is achieved with a messenger based on German data protection and strong encryption. On the other hand the system of the messenger is shielded to the outside and is used on specially protected mobile phones.

 

A TV report on the messenger for the police in Bavaria can be found here (in German):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSlOFjFGbcY

 

A press article about the police messenger in Bavaria can be found here (in German):

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bayern-Neuer-Polizei-Messenger-fuer-Streifenbeamte-3725791.html

 

We have described some other advantages and applications for the use of a messenger at the police and security forces in our case studies. These include among other things targeted communication channels, information exchange across authorities and regions, protection of confidential information and fail-safe communication system. If you have questions about Teamwire and how our messenger can be used within the police and security forces, please contact us.