Bedfordshire Police’s roll out of touch-screen terminals in supermarkets to enable residents to report crime will not be continued, the new police and crime commissioner has said.

The concept was to help to improve access to the force’s online services for those who had little or no access to the internet as a bid to improve crime reporting rates.

The terminals could also be used to access victim support and to give the force feedback.

The new police and crime commissioner (PCC), John Tizard, said: “What we have to do is ensure that everybody in this county has the best possible access to policing.

One of the touchscreen devices. Image: Bedfordshire Police.

placeholder image — One of the touchscreen devices. Image: Bedfordshire Police.

“I could not, hand on heart, justify the level of expenditure to roll out this particular programme.

“I think it’s interesting we’ve had a lot of feedback from the staff at the supermarkets. I don’t note much feedback from the people who may actually have used them.”

Following a trial in libraries, terminals were installed in Morrisons supermarkets in Leighton Buzzard, Shefford and Bedford, at the University of Bedfordshire (Luton and Bedford), Cranfield University and the community centre in Caddington.

“What we have to ensure is that people, wherever they are in the county, have access and they have the most appropriate access that they need,” the PCC said.

“And I’m not sure in the middle of a supermarket is the most secure place for [dealing with] quite difficult issues.”

Councillor Ghulam Abbas (Luton Borough Council) said he supported the decision not to roll out the terminals.

“I don’t think that’s the way to go because you’re never going to have enough for everybody in Bedfordshire,” he said.

“I agree that we need to have some digital form of reporting. Maybe having some sort of app that people can download onto their phones.”

Wayne Humberstone, acting chief executive at the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), said: “We’ve got Beds Connected app, there is a version of the terminal which we are going to begin to push out on this app.

“That is going to progress in the coming months.”

Panel chair, Paul Downing, said: “I think we all recognise as a panel and as local residents that there was a need to experiment.

“There were doubting Thomases, we’ve looked at the figures that have come back and what the public used them for.

“The feedback, I guess, is to move things forward in a more appropriate way,” he said.

In March, the BBC reported that John Tizard, the then Labour candidate for the PCC election, “welcomed” the new way to access the police, but that he “remained sceptical of their success”.

“On their own they are insufficient, what we need is much more access to the police through more community officers and more resources in our call centres,” he told the BBC.