It sounds like the sort of gadget James Bond may have wielded - a pen with a camera under the nib which records what is written and transmits it back to base.

Dorset police are using the £100 Magicomm pen to cut down on time spent inputting information into computers.

As an officer fills in a form while out and about, the pen reads what he is writing and the data is sent via mobile phone to the force computer. When he returns he can check the information has been read correctly.

Richard Tubb, of Dorset police, said: "It will go a long way to getting officers back on the beat."

Good Idea - keep officers on the street more longer, wonder how many other forces will adapt, if any?

Now if the date had been APRIL 1.......

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm - NOT sure about this one

Will it really keep officers on the beat longer? They're still going to inactive writing it up, whether sitting in the patrol car doing it or in the PC's office at the station.

If its like a pda where you write in hand writing but it changes it to computer text then you have to do it in block letters and half the time it doesn't recognize your writing

True lol