NORTH Kent police have been leading the way in testing new cutting-edge technology meant to keep bobbies on the beat.

Officers in Gravesham and Dartford have been trialling the blackberry-style systems in their marked patrol cars to make sure all the technical niggles are worked out and resolved before the systems are rolled out countywide in September.

The computers allow officers to view information whilst out and about on the streets, rather than calling queries into control.

With every marked police car and patrolling officer in the county hitting cyber space, it's hoped police will be able to keep a strong street presence and file paper work on the move rather than nipping back to the station an hour before the end of their shift to fill out forms.

Chief Superintendent Gary Beautridge, Area Commander for North Kent said: "For some time now we've been experimenting with this as an approach to keep more of our officers on the streets.

"We're looking to move as quickly as possible to a paperless system and this is a great start.

"We are at the cutting edge of technology here in North Kent, and we have trialled these devices for the rest of our colleagues in the county. These systems will be a massive boost to them all."

PC Ormerod has been helping to trial the devices. He said: "They're fantastic systems and great tools, they're going to save us a lot of time. The public will see us about a lot more because we can stay on the streets and do our work out in the field and be more visible rather than sitting at a desk back in the office."

Kent police is one of 27 forces to benefit from the National Policing Improvement Agency's £50 million set aside for hand held computers.

They will get £1.9 million to cover the costs of 1,110 hand held computers and 150 mobile devices which will be installed to the marked patrol cars.