Police chief says 'job centre' threats were out of context

Published on Saturday 13 June 2009 11:20

A SENIOR Lothian police chief has defended the introduction of handheld computers to replace notepads but said it may take time to win over all officers.

Assistant Chief Constable Mike McCormick was speaking following claims from officers that the PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) are more time-consuming than a notepad and pen.

ACC McCormick also rejected comments reportedly by one of his colleagues in this month's Police Review magazine, which advised officers who did not want to use PDAs to "go to the job centre".

ACC McCormick said: "PDAs are the equipment we have and we need to get officers to use them. We support them in that and nobody will be 'sent to the job centre'.

"We encourage officers to come to us if they have problems with the PDAs. If they do not like them, come and talk to us about it – tell us what the problem is."

Inspector Thomas Muir was quoted in this month's magazine as saying "a lot of cops are happy to sit at the station typing, rather than doing their jobs", suggesting this was one of the reasons behind their dislike of PDAs.

The machines are designed to free up officers' time as they do not require them to type up statements on their return to the police station, but in Lothian and Borders Police Federation surveys in 2007 and 2008, 65 per cent of respondents thought PDAs made them less efficient.

ACC McCormick said he had not been able to speak with Inspector Muir, currently on holiday, but was confident the comments had been taken out of context. He said that the use of PDAs within Lothian and Borders Police was in its infancy, having only been introduced as a pilot scheme in certain areas of the force, mainly for frontline officers.

He stressed that gradual advancements in software would allow for easier use and more familiarity among users would go some way to winning them over.

He said: "It may not be as good as it could be, but it's certainly not going backwards."

Ultimately, the PDAs may allow pictures of missing children or wanted criminals to be circulated across Scotland within minutes of being reported to the police.