FRONTLINE Bolton police officers could get hand-held computer devices sooner than expected, it has been revealed.

Tony Lloyd, Greater Manchester's police and crime commissioner, has already set aside £59m to provide officers with equipment like iPads to help them do their job more efficiently.

But the computers may be provided sooner if Greater Manchester receives its fair share of a pot of government money for the crime-fighting technology.

The Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that feared deep cuts to policing budgets had been avoided and funding for forces would be kept at the same level until at least 2019/20.

George Osborne's documents said: "The Spending Review invests nearly £1 billion in the next generation of 4G communications network for the emergency services which will enable officers to access key police databases, take mobile fingerprints and electronic witness statements and stream live body worn video – all whilst on the move."

Mr Lloyd said: "In actual fact, independent of the Chancellor's announcement, I lead a meeting about how we can roll out hand-held communications systems across GMP because we know that's the future.

"We know how police offices will save time in the field by not travelling back and forth – to get the kind of information that we as the public can access in our own homes – therefore putting more police on the beat.

"The Chancellor announced £1billion nationally and we need to look into the detail and how it can help us.

"Bolton knows the policing cuts have already taken lots of officers off the streets. The act of saving police officer time is literally the equivalent of making more police available for the people of Bolton."

One of the other reforms the Chancellor announced was the introduction of greater flexibility to a police and crime commissioner (PCC) to increase the amount of money he charges households through council tax – called a precept.

Mr Osborne will scrap the need to hold a local referendum if the PCC proposes to raise the precept by more than two per cent.

Mr Lloyd said: "My first thought isn't to increase the burden on local people's council tax and it's not necessarily a power I'd want to use immediately. But it could be something that I want to look to look at in the future."

Transitioning funding will be made available by the Government to assist forces lo make "efficiency" savings and to train more firearms officers.