Police must use more IT to modernise, say MPs

A report from the Home Affairs Committee released today recommends that chief constables urgently introduce technology such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) across all forces to save police officer time.

The committee says the time police spend on paperwork remains 'unacceptably high'. The report estimates 20 per cent of police officer time was spent on paperwork in each of the last three years, half of which was non-incident related.

Many officers still take statements in longhand. The waste of resources on paperwork was called an issue of 'real public concern.'

'It does seem that the police are still spending too much time on paperwork and there is some evidence that Police Community Support Officers are being cloistered away in offices, when they should be out on the streets providing visible reassurance policing,' said David Winnick MP, acting chairman of the committee.

The report says that the 40 per cent increase in police funding over the past decade has not been reflected in an increase in convictions, partly as a result of police forces failure to modernise.

But Bob Jones, chairman of the Association of Police Authorities, says the police is taking steps where it can.

'I think we have quite a good record of introducing a whole range of technology—Airwave, a £1bn system,' he said

'At the same time we are implementing automatic number plate recognition, fingerprints, ID systems, a whole series of improvements in command and control and trying to join up with the rest of the criminal justice system.'