NORTH Yorkshire police are about to embark on a technical revolution which will arm officers with gadgets to make even James Bond jealous.

As new high-tech control rooms in York and at force HQ at Newby Wiske, near Northallerton, prepare to come on line, the Evening Press was given a sneak preview of what the future has in store for the bobby on the beat.

Digital technology will allow officers to send and receive images of wanted offenders or missing children, and even video images of incidents such as crowd trouble at football games, from their radios.

And global positioning satellite (GPS) transponders will mean that each officer's location can be pinpointed on computerised maps in control rooms, improving both officer safety and response times.

While these developments are still a few years away, other new technology should be operational within months.

The new £1.5 million force control room behind the central area police HQ in Fulford Road, York, will be on line in December.

Chief Inspector Gary Clarke, who is overseeing the project, said that although the control room was not yet fully operational, it had proved its worth during the recent flood crisis when the force received 12,000 calls in a day - four times the usual volume.

He said operators were able to field calls about water levels and road closures and leave officers to important tasks on the ground.

And the public safety radio communications service - the digital radio system for which antenna are currently being erected - is expected to be up and running by late summer next year.

North Yorkshire police will be one of the first forces in the country to use it, and it will replace the existing radio system which was bought in the early 1990s - when it was already 25 years old.

Chief Constable David Kenworthy said the sheer size of North Yorkshire - at some two million acres - placed unique demands on the county's police which the new technology would help address.

"Nothing but the best communications will suffice," he said.

"We have to provide our officers with information and contact with their colleagues across mountains, dales, moors and coastline, and also of course in towns.

"Communication is our lifeblood."

david.wiles@ycp.co.uk