Time Waster?

A favourite tagline of any aspiring home secretary is "I'll reduce police paperwork". This always makes me laugh and reinforces my belief that politicians haven't got the faintest idea what they're talking about.
I also laughed a while ago when I read in an internal job newspaper someone saying "we've got rid of around 100 obsolete forms". When he was challenged on this he admitted that these forms had merely been replaced by different ones.
Police paperwork is quite a chameleon. They change names and colours but essentially you have to write the same thing. Computer reports are a bit of a joke because the different items of software for different functions are contracted out to different software developers and as such cannot communicate with each other; thus meaning you have to write out exactly the same information 3 times. And no you can't cut and paste.

Of course I neglected to mention that you have to write all the details down in your pocketbook or any other selected book before you have to transfer all that information onto the computer. Of course we could be issued laptops like they do in some US states, which you take around with you and input info directly onto said computer, before returning to your base and docking it and transferring the info, and so saving yourself a considerable amount of duplication.

But that would cost a lot more money than a notebook and a pen.