Thames Valley Police is doubling the number of handheld devices used by patrolling police, having established the technology can save 200 man hours per officer a year.

Trials of the Windows-based Pocket PC devices have already led to more arrests, after cutting the time it takes for officers to access systems such as the Police National Computer (PNC) and Voters Register.

Instead of having to wait in a queue when radioing the control room to check on a vehicle or suspect, police officers can make requests which take 15 seconds using the mobile devices, resulting in a 60 per cent increase in PNC checks.

'Police officers are carrying out checks that they might not have done in the past because they would have taken too long,' Keith Gough, project manager at Thames Valley Police, told Computing.

'They can also access other applications such as Outlook and our intranet, meaning officers can stay out on the beat longer.'

Gough says the force is currently training 60 police officers how to use the .Net based applications, running on O2 XDAII and Orange SPV M1000 devices, and plans to expand the service further in the future.

'We are hoping these trials have confirmed the business benefits and allow us to go to the Police Authority to raise funding for more of these,' said Gough.

Control room staff will also have fewer radio inquiries to deal with, so will be able to spend more time proactively aiding police cases and managing resources, he says.

'Because there are more police out on the streets and because they can make more checks, officers have been able to make more arrests,' said Gough.

The force has also introduced stringent security measures to ensure that sensitive data does not fall into the wrong hands. Bluetooth and SD Memory Cards will be disabled on all devices to prevent hacking attempts.

'Security is absolutely paramount for us and that information remains safe even if devices are lost or stolen,' said Gough.

'The information passing over the air also needs to be secure, so we are also encrypting information before it goes over the GPRS network.'

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