It has been reported that Police Officers are now going to be given hand-held computers so that their paper work can be cut down by 99 minutes per shift. It said that 27 forces in England and Scotland will benefit from the computers. Police Minister Tony McNulty said that the move would make crime fighting more effective and save officers time. But the Association of Chief Police Officers said there were not enough devices to meet demand.

Tony said that “It is just one of a range of improvements we are delivering to cut unnecessary bureaucracy, exploit new technologies and enable police officers to spend more time on frontline policing.”

The computers will be used for Uses for confirming someone’s identity, on-the-spot forms such as stop and search, and scanning fingerprints.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced last September that the computers would be operational within a year.

It’s said that when these computers are available then the Officers will be able to spend more time on the streets then in the station completing paper work which is what they currently have to do after a crime has taken place.

Do you think that this is a good idea?

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