Scottish Fire and Rescue enhances control room tech

Looking to no less than transform its emergency services operations, evolving its operational capabilities, improving country-wide collaboration and speeding emergency response times, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has signed a seven-year contract with Motorola Solutions to deploy a cloud-hosted Control Room Solution (CRS).

The national fire and rescue service of Scotland, SFRS was formed by the merger of eight regional fire services in April 2013, and is the largest fire brigade in the UK.

SFRS operates 356 fire stations across Scotland, coordinating tens of thousands of incident responses from its three operation centres, located in Edinburgh, Dundee and Johnstone, every year. It’s responsible for a range of emergency response situations, including primary and secondary fires, road traffic incidents and, increasingly, flooding and water rescues.

Yet the service has acknowledged it needs to evolve if it’s to continue to respond effectively to the changing safety needs of Scotland’s communities and the dynamic environment it operates. Specifically, it stresses that what Scotland requires from its fire and rescue service is different than it was a decade ago.

One part of this response is the deployment of technology across all operational control centres in Scotland. The seven-year contract, with the option for a three-year extension, is valued at £29.5m.

“Installing a cloud-hosted, single command and control system has been a strategic priority for our Fire and Rescue Service, in line with our digital strategy and the Scottish Government’s Cloud First policy,” said Andy Watt, assistant chief officer of SFRS.

“Motorola Solutions’ mobilising solution will improve our ability to coordinate during spate conditions, reduce our risk of cyber security breaches and reinforce our commitment to providing a modern experience for our control room operators.”

Motorola Solutions has been used by public safety organisations in Scotland for many years, and emergency services rely on its national airwave emergency services network and Tetra radios, as well as the Pronto digital policing application and body cameras.

“Scottish Fire and Rescue Service responds to a wide range of complex incidents on a daily basis,” said Fergus Mayne, UK and Ireland country manager at Motorola Solutions. “Our control room solution is helping SFRS to improve its operational efficiency and safeguard communities across Scotland.”

The deployment in Scotland comes just days after Motorola Solutions expanded its control and command centre portfolio with the acquisition of 3tc Software, a provider of control room software offerings for fire and rescue services and police.

Based in Leicestershire, 3tc offers fully integrated, mission-critical software applications to the UK public sector and global emergency services markets.