Police bosses ban games on new computers

Jun 1 2008 Exclusive by David Taylor

POLICE chiefs have ordered computer games to be removed from the force's electronic notebooks.

Officers were instructed to play games on their new personal digital assistants (PDAs) to get used to the devices.

But senior officers imposed a ban when they discovered some were playing on duty.

A police source said: "We had great fun, especially sitting in a car for hours during boring night shifts.

"One of the bosses thought that it wasn't a good idea.

"It's a pity as they were a bit of fun. It's not as if we were ignoring 999 calls while seeing who could get the highest score."

The Lothian and Borders force was the first in Scotland to receive the devices last July. They will soon replace notebooks across Scotland's forces at a cost of £2.5million.

The games installed on the existing PDAs have now been removed and they will not be included on devices issued in future.

The hand-held PDAs will phase out paper forms and allow access to police records and operational information.

Gordon Brown last year claimed the devices would cut paperwork by 99 minutes per shift.

And the time and location of reports is recorded - eliminating doubts about inaccuracy or fraud.

Lothian and Borders referred our inquiry to the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

An ACPOS spokesman said: "The games were used to allow those using them to get used to the PDAs and have since been disabled.

"The officers using PDAs will not have time to play games but we are confident these are going to be really good tools for our officers."

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