Force communications rank highly
Mr Halliday, accompanied by Information Technology Branch Chief System Manager Eliza Lee Chan Yuk-wah, attended the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Annual Conference held in Salt Lake City August 5 to 9, as well as visiting a number of police departments in California.
"APCO is a very influential association in North America representing the interests of call-takers and dispatchers in emergency call centres," said Mr Halliday.
Over 1,000 international delegates attended the conference and the Force was invited to give a presentation on the development of its third generation Command and Control System (CCIII).
Mr Halliday said that the HKPF presentation was very well received with several hundred delegates in attendance.
"The audience showed great interest in the presentation, probably because the digital trunked technology in this system is very new and advanced and only a few overseas police forces are currently using it," said Mr Halliday.
"In fact, we have already made use of this technology in our new Marine communications system and people were eager to hear about our firsthand experience using it."
Apart from attending the APCO conference, Mr Halliday and Mrs Lee also visited a number of law enforcement agencies in the US including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Highway Patrol as well as police departments in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland. They also had the opportunity of speaking to counterparts on telecommunications matters and visiting call centres.
Mr Halliday described the trip as extremely productive especially as the individuals he met were more than willing to speak frankly about their information technology projects.
"After this visit, I can confirm, confidently, that the communications systems of the HKPF conform to best international standards and that the CCIII project is progressing in the right direction. There were, gratifyingly, no surprises."
He added: "The visit demonstrated that the challenges and problems associated with information technology projects are pretty similar worldwide."
"Liaison with our US counterparts also confirmed, for me, the four main tenets of successful project implementation: Use the most up-to-date technology despite the greater risk; be absolutely sure of the customer's requirements; effectively manage the customer's expectations and changing requirements; and stick firmly to the project implementation schedule."
ACP IS Peter Halliday, Los Angeles Police Department Roger Ham and CSM ITB Eliza Lee