.... moving to Wales, they get all the best kit. Copshops with video conferencing, Doc surgergies with broadband before the rest of us, BT's 21CN kit in Cardiff (if I remember rightly) and the BBC studio does alright.

See this is how the Welsh and the Scots get back at the English after all these years, by shaming us with better practices and technology :)

All this new Unified Communication doesn't come cheap!!.especially CISCO brand name,which usually is four or five times dearer than any other company.

How does the North Wales Police Authority justify in spending on this yet NEW communications platform. When in one of the previous version of the "Y Glas" (a North Wales Police magazine) that the current communications system at that time (March 2006) was the best thing in the world.Apparently, that Forces in London and the rest of Britain are looking at the North Wales Police to learn from to implement into their force!! ( Well,clearly don't because they're changing it!!).

This is the link to it below; (copy and paste to your browser)

http://www.north-wales.police.uk/en/news/yglas7_10.asp

My worries are that,as a tax payer in North Wales that my tax contribution is going to technology like these which actually has the effect in turn of negating the police force to hire more employees to do the job,due to budget requirements.Money should be spent where it needs to be spent!

Everybody knows Mr Brunstrom recently wrote to ask for more money for his force and that he might have to cut jobs within the force in order to keep costs down.

See link below.(Y Glas issue 6)Copy and paste into browser address bar.

http://www.north-wales.police.uk/_globalimages/uploaded/yGlas06.pdf

So my question is WHY ANOTHER NEW COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM? When they already have a "super dooper one"!

My guess is that somebody has been told ALL the good points and NONE of the bad points of this new system!

This is a terrific idea, lots of thought has obviously gone into it -

Who do you call in the event of a local disaster? The Fire & Police services.

What is usually the first utility to fail in such a disaster? Electricity

What happens to IP phones without electricity? Nothing - they're dead.

So, given the number of floods we're experiencing at the moment (and these are supposed to become more frequent), we now have the Police force using phones that will be expensive paperweights exactly at the time that they're needed the most!

Of course, thats to do with real policing - not traffic enforcement. How silly of me... in that case it all makes perfect sense.