THE Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police said 2015 will see further changes to how the force operates.

Looking back at the year, Dave Jones said the Tour de France was his highlight of 2014 from a policing and planning point of view.

Mr Jones said: "The community reaction and engagement was very, very good. I think that looked great for everyone.

"That's the kind of policing that never gets reported, seeing officers dealing with the community, high-fiving, and you need the public to see that."

Gary Verity, who was responsible for bringing the Tour to Yorkshire, said: "I can't speak highly enough about the work police do. We should be rightfully proud of them and we are lucky to have them."

However, Mr Jones echoed the words of Assistant Chief Constable Paul Kennedy who [IN DECEMBER] said he was "devastated" and "so sorry" the force had missed opportunities to properly investigate 35 allegations of child abuse by Jimmy Savile and former Scarborough mayor Peter Jaconelli - which came to light this year.

In 2015, Mr Jones said the force would start to see investment in technology, with £10m for new mobile IT for officers, and three times the number of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras to tackle cross-border crime.

A new Mobile Asset Utilisation Database will also be introduced which will monitor police officers' vehicles, tracking them throughout the day, and keeping a record of where they are and for how long.

Mr Jones said the system was similar to tracking a parcel online, could lead to reductions in fuel and maintenance spending, and "gives evidence I can take back to the community and show what was done".

He said: "We will start to see a physical difference next year, which will be exciting time for us and will change the fundamental way we police."

Mr Jones said the technology had worked well in other areas, meaning "we're just the right end to make sure we get the right thing that works".

However, Mr Jones said the changes to technology which mean it is easier for officers to do more work could mean a reduction in staff throughout the force, and said further Government cuts to the national budget could cause the force to "revisit our planning assumptions".

He said: "We can save money doing things in a different way but we don't know what that's going to be after May election so at the moment our commitment is to maintain officer and PCSO numbers until 2016. What we won't be doing is reducing capacity and capability to maintain the service.

"If, with the MAUDS, we create a better way of doing the service, it may mean we don't need the human resources. Our absolute commitment is to make sure frontline numbers don't drop. Backroom and staff numbers may drop."

Mr Jones said any funding changes made by the Government were out of his hands, but said he was committed to keeping North Yorkshire safe.

He said: "I don't do politics, I do policing and will just try and deal with what we have.

"We said we would preserve officer and PCSO numbers and we have. We said we would do really good community focused celebration of the Tour de France, we did. We said we would invest in technology and we have. The number one thing we have to do is maintain public safety, officer safety and provide a level of service people quite rightly expect from us. I think we will do the same in 2015."