„Teamwire not only guarantees maximum data sovereignty but also data privacy and security.“

Initial Situation: Inconsistent Information Flow

During the 2016 rampage at the Olympia-Shopping Center in Munich, police officers on the scene and in the command staff were confronted with a wide range of challenges. A lot of information – including multimedia information – had to be made available to all emergency forces within a very short time. However, this was only possible to a limited extent via digital radio, which resulted in a partially inconsistent information situation.

Requirement: Secure Messenger as an Optimal Extension

Moreover, the application had to be able to be used on both smartphones and desktop PCs. The Bavarian police became aware of Teamwire’s secure messenger through their mobile communications contract partner, which convinced them.

Implementation: Oktoberfest as a Stress Trial

Before Teamwire was deployed throughout Bavaria in 2017, there were several trial phases. The first trial run with 80 installations took place during the Oktoberfest 2016. An extended test run with around 300 installations revealed optimization needs, such as expanding the maximum group size from 50 to 300 participants and adapting the login mask. To facilitate mission control, it should be possible to log in with the radio call name from digital radio.

Create Trust and Increase User Acceptance

To ensure that the emergency services quickly accepted Teamwire, it was important to create an understanding of data privacy and to communicate the added value of the messenger. For this purpose, in addition to employee training, there was and still is at least one person responsible at each office, a so-called „multi(plikator)“, who acts as a contact person. In the meantime, it is not only the protective police who make active use of Teamwire, but also the closed units, the criminal investigation department and the executives who rely on the messenger.

„It quickly became clear that a supporting communications solution was needed for an optimized operational communication. On the one hand, this had to be GDPR compliant, meet our high police security standards and fulfill our compliance regulations. On the other hand, it had to be highly functional and easy to use.“

Alexander Stöbrich, IuK-Coordination Office of the Bavarian Police

Images Say More than a Thousand Words

In addition to operation-specific chat groups for operational sections, such as East, Central, West and North, the Bavarian police also use a separate group chat for each operation in order to distribute all relevant information to those responsible. If a gas station robbery occurs, for example, the officer can film or photograph a video sequence from the surveillance camera and then distribute it as a mugshot. Without Teamwire, they would have to communicate the description of the person verbally to the operations center, which in turn would pass it on as a radio message or written message.

Data Protection Has Priority

In order to meet all data protection requirements, the administrator closes mugshot chats as soon as they become obsolete. Furthermore, all chats are automatically deleted after predefined intervals. Data created in Teamwire is fully encrypted at all times.

„Sharing photos and videos in Teamwire solves the senderand-receiver problem. Not everyone has the same picture in mind when they hear a verbal description. Teamwire changes that.“

Thomas Lachmann, Chief Superintendent in the Operations Division at the Middle Franconia Police Headquarters and Promoter of the ‘Mobile Police’ Program

When Selecting a Messenger, Blue Light Organizations Should Consider That:

✅ The data is hosted by a German provider in an ISO 27001-certified data center and is encrypted end-to-end. This ensures that the GDPR and the Federal Data Protection Act apply.

✅ Individual use cases are covered with the provided features, such as distribution lists, alerts, live locations and image blur tools.

✅ There is a professional administrator portal to centrally control user administration and rights distribution. It should also be possible to define communication guidelines and archive chats in an audit-proof manner.

✅ An open API is available to enable bidirectional connection of third-party systems and ensure full integration into the IT landscape.

Result: Faster Search Successes and Future Plans

Thanks to Teamwire, the Bavarian police can achieve faster search successes, especially in missing persons cases. It has thus established a complementary solution to digital radio that sustainably improves mission communication and coordination. For the future, the Bavarian police not only plan to introduce further functions, but also to increase the number of installations. It currently uses Teamwire on around 20,000 smartphones; more are to follow.

„Together, digital radio and secure messenger become an unbeatable duo.“

Alexander Stöbrich, IuK-Koordinierungsstelle der Bayerischen Polizei