Northgate Public Services acquires APD Communications

APD will continue to operate under its current name and its management team and operational staff will remain in place. APD will remain based in Hull, East Yorkshire, and operate as a business unit within NPS’ Safety Division. NPS sees APD’s solutions as being highly complementary and natural additions to existing public safety portfolio and customer base.

According to NPS, more than 50 per cent of UK police forces are currently using its crime, custody and intelligence management system, CONNECT, to manage information on victims and crimes. APD’s mission-critical communications command and control solutions are used by more than two-thirds of UK police forces and also by major transportation hubs and airports, including Gatwick and Dubai international airports and the London Underground.

In the company’s announcement, NPS stated that bringing these two sets of technologies together could bring ‘untold benefits to the emergency services and the public’.

Ian Blackhurst, Northgate Public Services's executive director of safety and health, said: “If data can flow freely from an emergency call in the control room instantly into the hands of a police officer on the street, then response times can be improved dramatically. If that data is then combined with known historical information about the caller or the address, officers will have the potential to determine the threat, risk and harm of each incident and respond exactly as needed, improving the safety of citizens.”