What does Britain’s Labour Party have in common with a football (soccer) match?
When the Labour Party held its annual conference in the large coastal resort town of Bournemouth, located in the county of Dorset, England, the Dorset Police needed a communications and surveillance system that would allow them to protect the more than 20,000 conference attendees and keep demonstrations by more than 20 different protest groups in check. Wireless broadband seemed to be a natural fit. The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) – the government agency responsible for overseeing all technology operations for the English and Welsh police forces – sponsored the wireless trial. The operational team conducted its first site survey on August 15 and the system was up and running by September 17. But there was one big caveat: the wireless equipment had to be off-the-shelf and could not interfere with existing police operations or video surveillance systems. Thus the Dorset Police and NPIA specified a wireless system to supplement the existing fixed Closed-Circuit Television
