Northumbria Police today became the first force in the UK to roll out handheld terminals to its staff based on the UK government-backed Communications Electronics Specialist Group (CESG) accreditation.

The force chose Motorola's MTP850 devices as they meet key requirements for operating on the UK Airwave Tetra network, which is used by the emergency services.

Northumbria Police is one of the largest forces in the country, and the rollout had to be carried out in two parts with heavy co-operation between vendor and customer.

The migration from the force's old Motorola devices took three weeks instead of the estimated three months, partly thanks to field-based software upgrades that minimised disruption, according to Motorola.

"To maintain the level of security for the information our officers send and receive, we needed to achieve CESG accreditation," said John Meldrum, Airwave & maintenance manager at Northumbria Police.

"After an open tender process, it was clear that upgrading our Tetra terminals to the Motorola MTP850 would meet our needs today and in the future."