Chris Sims has recently become Chief Constable

The comments by Chris Sims come a week after an officer from his force whose online diary described the reality of policing, revealed his identity.

Stuart Davidson's blog said policing in the county had become little more than a desk job.

"Clearly we are spending far more time dealing with bureaucracy than we would want to do," the chief constable said.

"A lot of that is I believe in our power to change.

"I want to give officers an opportunity to really use their initiative and to actually solve crime, deal with crime in a way that's focussed at the victim, rather than focussed at ticking the box at the end of the process."

Mr Davidson, who is quitting for a new life as a policeman in Canada, wrote his blog anonymously under the name of Pc David Copperfield, and not even his closest colleagues knew that he was responsible.

The Policeman's Blog recorded the daily life of a police officer.

He said: "While we're filling in forms, while we're inside a police station, we're not dealing with things that the public would hope that we deal with."