A team of professional staff from COMMS, Information Systems Wing researched the global communications field before specifying a digital trunked radio platform adopting the Terrestrial Trucked Radio (TETRA) standard to replace the old analogue radio system. Tenders for the CC III project were invited in early 2002 and the $540 million contract was eventually awarded to Motorola Inc. on March 8, 2003.

Chief Inspector Susanna Woods of Information Technology Learning Unit (ITLU), Police College, was a member of the User Acceptance Team evaluating CACCS3 software. With the phased introduction of CC III, it was imperative for officers to receive both adequate and comprehensive training on how to use the system. She then set up a dedicated team comprising Station Sergeant Lau Yuen-kwan, Sergeant Wong Kim-wai and Sergeant Fung Chi-keung to assist during the user acceptance stage, train-the-trainer phase and production of manuals, and to conduct training for regional staff in each phase.

CC III was rolled out in three phases from late 2004 to 2006, and CIP Woods had a tight schedule to train the whole Force in the use of the new system. The first phase was rolled out in New Territories North and New Territories South Regions on December 9, 2004, with training conducted at the Tai Po NT RCCC new site. Detected computer bugs and poor reception were among the teething problems addressed by the implementation team.

The second phase was rolled out in Hong Kong Island Region on May 12, 2005, with training conducted in the ITLU office in Arsenal House, PHQ. The third phase for KW and KE Regions followed on March 11.

CIP Woods said a total of 3,344 officers had received training during the three phases, including Police Communications Officers and Auxiliary officers.

CIP Woods thanked officers from Operations Wing's Implementation Team, in particular Acting Chief Inspector Lee Man-yiu, Senior Inspectors Cheung Siu-ching and Chung Chi-chuen for their assistance throughout CC III training.

The new CC III system supports an integrated command and control environment which includes radio, telephone, incident handling, voice logging, automated action cards, as well as interfaces to external computer systems in selected Government departments.

CIP Woods reiterated that once CC III was fully implemented throughout the Force, an officer's CTA password is required to logon to the CACCS3 system. Officers who wish to logon to CACCS3 will need a CTA account which is maintained by the Formation System Security Manager Admin (SSM ADM). No separate ECACCS password is required.

Looking ahead, CIP Woods said CC III replacement training is still underway and she is now looking into the Mobile Data Terminal training, which is enhancement training for CC III. She also told OffBeat that up till now she has developed 62 computer on-line modules on the Force Information Communal System and CC III system through in-house resources. All e-learning modules and manuals have been uploaded onto POINT via Police College ITLU Homepage. These e-learning modules are easy to follow, and CIP Woods welcomes feedback from users.

CIP Woods (left) with (from second left) SGT Fung, SGT Wong, SSGT Lau, ACIP Lee, SIP Cheung and SIP Chung