Officers hope to avoid time-consuming trips to stations

Forty Blackberrys will be used in Broxtowe from January to allow officers patrolling the streets to store and record information.

The machines will also be able to access police databases to check the background of suspects.

A police spokesman said the aim was to allow officers to stay on patrol rather than checking records in the office.

Nottinghamshire Police spokesman Martin Hanson said often a suspect had to be taken back to the station to be checked out.

Unauthorised access

He admitted they had been looking at using Blackberry's for some time.

"What takes the time and effort in design is getting our very sophisticated systems to be available and useful to an officer in a busy situation on a very small screen.

"The way we have done this and the design used is something we are keeping under wraps at the moment."

He confirmed there were security measures built into the system to prevent unauthorised access.