Bobbies get hand PCs

Bobbies will be going on the beat with handheld computers and body cameras under reforms to cut paperwork to be unveiled tomorrow.

Cops will also hand out a business card if they stop someone in the street as part of new Government plans.

The cards replace the 40-question stop and account form, saving two million police hours a year. But the foot-long stop and search form will not be ditched. Instead, cops will fill in a "streamlined" version on a handheld PC.

A leaked draft of the year-long Government report, seen by The Sun, also calls for an end to the "perverse incentive" for cops to target minor offenders to hit Whitehall targets. It cites one officer who charged someone with a public order offence as they built a SNOWMAN on a footpath.

Report author Sir Ronnie Flanagan claims red tape wastes SIX MILLION police hours a year - and an extra 3,000 cops could go back on the beat if it was slashed.

One force estimates that handheld computers saved frontline officers 51 minutes every shift.

Body cameras can cut paperwork time by nearly a quarter and could "ultimately replace" written statements.

The report comes a week after Tory leader David Cameron pledged to scrap the forms cops must fill out when they stop people on the street.

Shadow police minister David Ruffley said: "This review does not go far enough. It does not follow our pledge to abolish the 40-question stop and search form."