Thames Valley Police is rolling out 1,100 BlackBerry smartphones to its police and community support officers.
The initiative is part of the £50m Home Office and National Policing Improvement Agency funding announced last week for 10,000 handheld devices to be rolled out across 27 police forces.
The BlackBerry devices — which will use the Orange network — will allow police officers to spend more time on the beat, as they can remotely access systems they currently have to return to the police station for.
This includes the Police National Computer and other Thames Valley Police systems through which officers can check suspect names and conduct vehicle checks.
Other applications include video witness and custody photographs; the missing-persons database; the warrants, court orders and bail database; duty management and briefings information and neighbourhood crime notifications.
Keith Gough, mobile information project manager at Thames Valley Police, said the technology will allow officers to "police smarter, not harder".
He added that mobile access will mean officers are better informed, receiving up-to-the-minute information, allowing them to improve the service they provide to local communities.
The mobile devices will also boost security, by reducing the amount of paperwork that could potentially go astray, as well as providing the option to remotely disable them if they are lost, the police force claimed.
BlackBerry devices are the only mobile devices accredited for restricted level data by the UK government national security body, the CESG.
Talkback
You might be interested that I sent the following to public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk (the Independent Police Complaints Commission told me that this was the correct address to use) on 14Nov2007. So far no response!?!
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"I have been told that this is the address to use for questions about policing standards, if not please will you redirect me?
I see in various articles that Police forces are now using (or about to use) Blackberry devices to access data including the Police National Computer when out in the street. Previously this data had higher protection by only being accessible when within a Police Station.
Who is responsible for auditing the usage of such devices from a security point of view?
Working in IT I understand more of the risks than many other people will."
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I'll resend it and see if I get any response this time.