Mobile revolution

The police service is in the throes of a technological revolution that could be as significant as the issue of personal radios was in the 1960s. The use of mobile data devices is proliferating across the constabularies on the back of ring-fenced government funding and a centralist political dictat that deems them to be the answer to many of the service's bureaucratic ills.

In 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that 10,000 handheld computers would be operational in police forces within 12 months. The Home Office responded by providing £50 million capital investment for the National Policing Improvement Agency to support the police service in delivering this pledge.

While supporting the introduction of mobile data devices, the Flanagan review warned of the 'nightmare' scenario in which the service invests heavily in technology but becomes even more bureaucratic than it is now. 141 of 1,936 words