Mobile Policing:
Digital Accident Reports in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland

Modern & end-to-end digital working with mobile devices
PoC | Pilot phase | Going live with involvement of several project partners
Time savings in the double-digit percentage range according to DFKI

Police officers in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland record data for on-site police case processing with the HybridForms App: Traffic accidents, mobile criminal reports and other incidents are recorded by police response teams using smartphones and tablets. The end-to-end digital documentation makes all data available more quickly for further processing.

HybridForms – Digital forms for police and CRITIS teams

When entering data with the HybridForms mobile App, police officers are supported in their work by a range of integrated functions: Offline mode for uninterrupted work even without Internet access, automatic validation of entries with warning messages in case of errors, photo documentation with enhanced drawing function, sketches for quick visualizations, online data transfer to the police VBS and immediate confirmation of the case number.

They save valuable time when recording personal data on ID cards through intelligent scanning with OCR text recognition. The HybridForms scan-post-processing matches scans with stored catalogs – for accurate and complete data. Car license plates can also be scanned.

All incident data and images captured with the App are transferred directly to the case management system. This means that the incident data is available in a structured form and without delay for further police processing.

About the Saarland Police

The state police of the German state of Saarland (with a population of about 980,000) is under the authority of the Saarland Ministry of the Interior, Construction and Sport. Around 2,700 police officers are on duty around the clock to ensure the safety of the people.

About the Rhineland-Palatinate Police

The state police of the German state Rhineland-Palatinate (with about 4.1 million inhabitants) is assigned to the Ministry of the Interior and Sports. About 9,300 police officers are responsible for public safety – in crime prevention, hazard control & traffic safety.

Further project partners: The Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Microsoft Germany, Avanade / Accenture, the LDI (State Office for Data and Information/ Landesbetrieb Daten und Information) and the IT-DLZ Saarland were involved in various project phases.

»SB-App« for mobile police case processing: Mobile traffic accident reports, mobile criminal complaints & mobile miscellaneous cases are documented directly on site with HybridForms

Mobile Policing in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland

»The trial of HybridForms for traffic accident recording (VU App) at the Saarland police force has shown us that we can exploit considerable potential with it. The immediate, simple and intuitive recording on site with tablets and smartphones saves us time and improves quality. We are spared multiple entries, and our colleagues are enthusiastic about the technology. HybridForms is, in short: flexible, simple and reliable!«

Ralf Stoll | Senior Police Director, Ministry of Interior, Construction and Sports, Saarland

»The use of mobile devices in accident recording not only facilitates data collection on site, but also enables greater integration of the entire administrative process.
This digitization step can significantly reduce the current process effort.«

Professor Peter Loos | Institute of Information Systems of the DFKI, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and Saarland University

Digital documentation for CRITIS & public safety: Better data quality, faster available results, accelerated processes & significant time savings

Problems & requirements of the police

Every year, there are over 150,000 traffic accidents in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. When the police recorded these accidents, it was common practice for all data to be taken on site with a pad of paper and a pen – handwritten notes and sketches – as well as photos taken with a camera. The manually recorded data was then typed up later at the police station and entered into the central POLADIS case management system.

In 2016, the HybridForms form solution was selected for the PoC »VU-App – Mobile Traffic Accident Recording« in order to relieve the police forces of administrative work, to avoid the time-consuming duplicate recording of data, and to optimize the resulting time-delayed transfer to the VBS.

Launch & implementation of the project as a mobile & digital solution

2016: Feasibility study / Proof of Concept (PoC) with the Saarland Police, officers from the Saarlouis police station, Microsoft Germany, and DFKI.
2017: Pilot project with selected users at the Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland police forces, collaboration with DFKI and Avanade / Accenture.
Since 2018: Going live & live operation of the »SB-App« in the federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, cooperation for the common base systems.
Operation of the systems in the high-availability data center of the LDI (Landesbetrieb Daten und Information) as the central governmental IT service provider.

Learning & benefits for daily police work

Time-saving data capture through intelligent functions such as scanning/OCR.
Optimal quality through structured data entry with automatic validation.
Relieving the workload of police forces by saving time on administrative tasks.
Modern image of the police – working with digital tools & mobile devices.

Modern police: Mobile assistance for work processes with HybridForms enables more efficient procedures, increases quality and creates free spaces

Integrated scanning & OCR

Identity cards, passports, license plates, ID cards, …
OCR text recognition for correct data in optimal quality
Smart post-processing for matching with address catalogs

Scanning instead of typing: Fewer steps and input errors

Connection to police case management system (VBS)
XML interface via process-specific XSLT transformations
Logging and ensuring successful transmission

Seamless integration: Direct transfer of data to the VBS

Protected data & systems

Automated data sync with SSL/TSL encryption
Secure access with ADFS and Web Application Proxy (WAP)
Successful security check of the App by the Fraunhofer Institute

Fail-safety & resilience: Secure CRITIS infrastructure and software

DFKI: Significant improvements in time & data quality

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) provided scientific support for the PoC in Saarland – with a focus on the topics of usability and efficiency gains.

As a result, case-dependent time savings in the double-digit percentage range were identified. The expected efficiency potential was confirmed, too: Gain in time and thus more presence in patrols, avoidance of typing errors & higher data quality.

Video: Proof of Concept at the Saarland Police 2016

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Mobile Policing: Digital Accident Reports in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland