Under a deal with existing supplier Unisys, and new software supplier Dexterra, officers at 59 police forces across the UK will be able to access the system on their Blackberrys or Windows-Mobile based PDAs.

Police across forces are already spending that will also allow officers to take fingerprints, check a central database of criminals, and file reports while they are still at crime scenes.

Over 5,000 investigators, support staff and managers will be able to set up mobile access to , which allows forces to share and find information more easily.

Using the Dexterra Concert application development platform, the police will build 11 applications for a range of tasks, including managing case progress, storing exhibit information, and searching and linking information from different cases. Each police force will be able to procure the combination of applications it chooses.

One month ago, the police announced it had made large modifications to the system, run by Unisys. The changes mean forces can more easily , and a new tagging system enables clearer labelling and better searches for specific details.