Computers are everywhere and affect almost every aspect of our lives. If you don't work on a computer, someone else will be working on one for you. Even at home there is often no escaping the screen or frustrations that come with malfunction.

For if computers are omnipresent, computers going wrong is also part of the complicated package that is modern life. So it is alarming to hear that North Yorkshire police run an essential mainframe computer without back-up. According to independent auditors, the police have no contingency plans to back up their mainframe computer following a crash. And, as many of us know, computers do crash - sometimes almost as often as cars.

A spokesman for the auditors told this newspaper that by operating in such a way, the police were facing a significant risk as "operational systems, such as communications, rely on the mainframe as well as support systems such as finance".

This potentially catastrophic discovery was made during an independent study of the force's finances, which also found possible problems facing the county's police force leading up to the new Millennium.

The knowledge that the police could be left without full computer use following a systems crash is certainly disturbing. True, such an eventuality might never occur - but it could. And it is frightening to consider the impact of such a computer failure, which could, as the auditors warn, affect everything from communications to finance.

Just think of the impact behind that word 'communications'. How would the police operate during a malfunction; and how would they communicate with each other and with the public? These are questions which the police face, and the response that 'Work continues as normal but is logged on paper' is not entirely encouraging.

Further alarm is caused by the auditors' discovery that not all of the force's computers were compliant with the Millennium. As we rush towards the year 2000, it is unsettling to think that some police computers might be at risk from the Millennium bug.

The auditors found that the authority had not identified the main finance system as "a business critical system", and had not tested the system for compliance with the year 2000. Police management responded that they did not anticipate any problems, but the auditors were surely right to warn that "control may be significantly affected by the loss of the finance system".

As the Millennium New Year approaches, the police face what promises to be one of the busiest periods ever. Let's hope their computer system is up to the task at such a busy time of the year.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.