A NEW initiative to free up police officers to tackle crime and provide high visibility policing in North-East communities was announced yesterday by Home Secretary David Blunkett.

The Northumbria Police force area is one of ten pilots to benefit from £13m of Home Office funding to recruit additional civilian staff to do station-based jobs traditionally performed by police officers.

This will allow officers to get back on the frontline, policing their communities.

It comes on top of the Government's existing work to modernise the police service, cut bureaucracy and invest in information technology (IT) to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Mr Blunkett unveiled the funding while visiting Newcastle, where the Northumbria pilot project will see the equivalent off 91 police officers freed up from station-bound duties over the next two years.

He was accompanied by Hazel Blears, Home Office Minister for Crime Reduction, during the regional fact-finding mission.

Mr Blunkett said: "We have more police officers than ever before.

"But, too often, officers find themselves trapped in the station, dealing with paperwork and other duties that can, and should, be carried out by other staff.

"We need to ensure that those officers are out in their communities, reducing crime and reassuring the public through high visibility policing.

"This £13m will enable ten forces to pilot projects to investigate new, better ways of working, cut bureaucracy and improve the service they provide to the public.

"These pilots are part of ongoing Government reforms to modernise the police service; reforms that have seen crime continuing to fall, record investment in the police service and its IT and record numbers of police officers supported by community support officers."

Northumbria Police Assistant Chief Constable David Warcup said: "The level of support provided by the Home Office for this project clearly acknowledges the contribution Northumbria Police can make to this area of work.

"Northumbria is the first force in the country to integrate police staff with police officers in this way, providing a seamless transition from arrest through the criminal justice system to post-sentence supervision in the community.

"These people will become a vital link in the criminal justice chain and be part of the forefront of policing in the 21st Century."

Northumbria is the flagship force in the UK for the Offender Management project, where jobs traditionally done by police officers will be done by specialist police staff.

In total, 93 police staff posts are being created, freeing up the equivalent of 91 police officers to concentrate on frontline duties.

The two-year pilot scheme, funded through £4.4m of Home Office cash, centres on three custody suites at police stations at Newcastle North, South Shields and Bedlington.

People are being recruited to carry out a range of duties previously carried out by police officers. They include detention officers, custody investigating officers, case management officers, and offender management officers.

The force was swamped with applicants within days of the first phase of jobs being advertised and the first phase of recruiting is well under way.