Seven police forces shun mobile devices

Devon & Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Norfolk, Northumbria, Suffolk, Sussex and West Mercia police forces have allocated no mobile devices to their officers, reports The Register . According to a table of gadgets issued by forces released on 22 July 2010 in answer to a written parliamentary question by home affairs select committee chair Keith Vaz, some other forces had issued only a few, including Warwickshire (46) and West Midlands (78). By contrast, West Yorkshire has issued 3,400 and Lancashire 3,002, both ahead of the UK's biggest force, London's Metropolitan, with 2,000 issued. Forces such as the British Transport Police, with 1,350 in use, have been early adopters of the technology: BTP officers have long used GPRS handhelds, and have also used portable "slim printers" to issue legally-required forms (for instance after a stop-and-search) which would normally be completed laboriously in pen. Technology advocates have frequently suggested that more use of mobile data by police officers could cut down on time-consuming paperwork and visits to police stations, enabling coppers to spend more time on the streets. The head of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), announcing more funding for such gadgets last year, said: "Mobile computers are critical to a modern police officer. Officers who have access to databases, such as the Police National Computer, command and control and intelligence systems while out on patrol, are spending less time returning to the station and more time on the frontline - therefore increasing visibility and reassuring the public." It was expected at that point that all UK police would have access to such technology by this year. However, despite ample funding from central government, it seems that some forces still refuse to move into the era of the networked officer. Police handhelds are used to access criminal records, intelligence and other important data have to comply with CESG security standards requiring strong encryption: furthermore information cannot be held on the device, but must reside permanently only in the NPIA's blue cloud. Controversial mobile fingerprint-scanner devices allowing on-the-fly checks against the NPIA's database are administered under a different project known as Lantern. Trials involving a few hundred devices during the past few years have been deemed a success: In February this year, contractor Cogent Systems was selected by the NPIA to move forward with the introduction of as many as 10,000 systems.