Case Study: Durham Regional Police achieves faster mobilization and improved response with BlackBerry AtHoc

How Durham Regional Police Leverage BlackBerry AtHoc

Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) serves more than 700,000 residents across a rapidly growing and geographically diverse region east of Toronto, with over 1,200 officers and nearly 400 vehicles. Faced with urban and rural policing demands and a fragmented, manual communications process—relying on group texts and emails—DRPS struggled to mobilize specialized units quickly and maintain accurate, timely notifications during critical incidents.

DRPS implemented BlackBerry AtHoc, initially for 80 first responders and later expanded to manage 19 specialty units, using multi-channel alerts (phone, email, SMS, mobile) and configurable primary/secondary callout lists with a five-minute fallback. The result: one‑button mobilization that eliminates phone trees and email chains, significantly reducing response time, saving supervisors’ attention during chaotic incidents, and earning consistently positive feedback from operators and field personnel.

Durham Regional Police

Paul Hallett

Inspector