A Career at BTP
I have enjoyed a long and eventful career at BTP, spanning over almost 3 decades [This is already beginning to sound like a retirement speech…but I assure you it isn’t, not just yet anyway…]
I started at BTP in December 1998, as a Senior Desktop Engineer, based at our old FHQ in Tavistock (Russel Square). It was affectionately called “The Diary” as it was the former headquarters of Express Diaries.
The Technology Department was very different then, it comprised of a team of about 30 people, with our Communications Team (Airwave Radio) sitting outside of Technology at that time.
We concentrated on keeping the lights on and any project or blue-sky initiatives were taken on by the same team members, by those that were interested and keen to develop their skills.
I was the first turban wearing Sikh in the organisation (we were leading the way, in terms of Diversity and Inclusion even then). I recall Senior Officers (who had served in the military) saying how they respected Sikhs because of our rich history in the military, all around the world. They tried to encourage me to be become a Police Officer, as they said it would be great for community integration and the Force as a whole. Alas I never succumbed to the offer, as I was focussed on progressing my career in IT.
The main police systems being used at the time were PINS MESS, RAIL (our Command & Control system at the time). LU BTP (now B Division) had their own mainframe system, called PLOD. One of my first jobs was to remove this mainframe system and I still remember wheeling the two, 8”ft by 4”ft computers, along the corridor at 55 Broadway and down the service lifts, to a skip (all hard disks had been removed).
Soon after we introduced a new email system (Outlook) which in the first instance was only available to Inspectors and above. It was a game changer, and it was not long before demand grew and it became a pseudo operational communications tool. Before then, the only internal digital communications was a point-to-point mess switching mainframe system, allowing the control room to send direct one-line messages to an individual or group.
Throughout the years; I have been involved in many major events, mostly high points, but also a couple of low ones too.
A few key highlights of my career with BTP being:
- In my first year I remember setting up the Major Incident suite at Hammersmith for the Paddington Rail Crash where 31 people lost their lives. It was my first exposure to such a tragic event and showed me first-hand what our officers dealt with, and the care and diligence involved in doing the job.
- I was then seconded to the BTP LU area to bring them in line, in terms of their technology. I spent a year or so upgrading all their computers from stand-alone Windows 3.1 to NT networked Windows 3.11 PC’s.
- Spent the rest of 1999 upgrading all of our LU network kit to become Millennium compliant. I was dreading the flipping of the clocks at midnight 1999 and the affects it would have. But nothing happened, even the one site that I had missed. We had spent 6 months replacing kit across the force, for no reason.
- I remember being in the Tavistock Building when the 7/7 bombs went off where 52 people lost their life and a further 700 were injured. A bus exploded, just around the corner from us, our office windows shook, and I recall our Officers bringing in casualties on makeshift stretchers to receive first aid in our canteen that had been temporarily converted to provide A&E care.
- I was one of the core team involved in our first FHQ moved from Tavistock to Camden. It involved transporting all our servers in a little van between the two sites and installed all new XP HP desktops on all six floors.
- I was the IT lead for the 2012 Olympics and was honoured to be representing BTP at the closing ceremony. It was an amazing and positive time and a testament to the dedication of our Officers who kept us all safe and ensured that it was such a great experience.
- I was part of a small Project Team, responsible for replacing our limited and dated network. After many years of being stuck in a restrictive contract with our network providers, we took the brave decision to move away from them and look at options to modernise our network. We replaced 95% of our copper cables with newer fibre infrastructure.
- Most recently I was honoured, along with the rest of the Technology Culture Club team to be put forward for the “Us at our best” awards. This was for our contribution to the IT department in delivering initiatives to meet our Strategic Objective of “Building a modern and inclusive Force”, by following our mantra of: “We strive to be better every day, we do the right thing” and “we care”.
Along the way I have got married, had two kids and progressed my career from Senior Desktop Engineer to Senior Project Manager, and now to Head of Applications.
I feel a valued member of the IT SMT, where I think I bring my vast BTP knowledge and diverse background experience to help drive the force forward.
And that brings us to the present day, 26 odd years later, and we have now just exited another Force Headquarters at Camden (formerly a car showroom) to enter the next phase of the BTP journey. In the famous words of Buzz Lightyear…
“To Infinity and Beyond…”
