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Government funds handheld police computers

Kable

Published: 27 May 2008 13:27 BST

Twenty-seven police forces will share £50m in government funding for police officers' handheld computers.

The funds are being distributed through the National Policing Improvement Agency, which evaluated the bids from forces. The 10,000 computers have to be in operation by March 2009.

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Richard Earland, chief information officer at the NPIA, said: "Officers who have access to databases, such as the Police National Computer, command and control and intelligence systems while out on patrol, will spend less time returning to the station and more time on the frontline — therefore increasing visibility and reassuring the public."

The 27 forces sharing the funds are the Metropolitan Police Service, all eight forces in Scotland, the British Transport Police and the constabularies of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Thames Valley and West Yorkshire.