Police BlackBerrys are 'secure'

The rollout of BlackBerrys will continue until July

Police in the Thames Valley have clarified that new hand-held computers being given to officers are secure.

The force is rolling out 1,100 BlackBerry devices in a bid to reduce the amount of trips back to the office.

But no information will be saved on the machines and they will be password protected to stop sensitive data being accessed, police said.

The devices, which access the police national computer, can also be disabled remotely if they are stolen or lost.

Keith Gough, of Thames Valley Police, said: "BlackBerrys are just devices we are using to access information that is saved in the police national computer but you can't save anything in them.

"They are also protected by a strong password. If you don't get the right password five times, the device wipes itself out.

"If the BlackBerry is lost, it will be disabled and deleted from the system remotely."

The rollout of BlackBerrys started last week and will continue until early July.

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