Beat bobbies will be available at the touch of a button from today following the launch of a new initiative.

Fourteen police officers in the Keighley division have been armed with mobile phones.

The aim is to help officers in the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) team crack down on community problems like nuisance youths.

A new poster has also been published outlining which POP officer has responsibility for particular areas, along with their phone numbers. Members of the public are encouraged to ring officers to inform them about ongoing community problems.

The initiative is a joint venture between police and the community.

Superintendent Graham Sunderland, of Keighley police, said: "The idea is that POP officers, who have been dealing with ongoing matters, can be contacted directly. They are the people who have an in-depth knowledge of the situation."

He stressed the phones were not for people to contact police officers in an emergency, they were for communication with officers dealing with problems in a particular area.

POP officer Sergeant Paul Robinson said: "The whole aim of POP is to work with the community to identify their problems and then analyse this information so that rather than just treating the symptoms, we are also looking at the causes."

POP officers hope the scheme will encourage people to help gather evidence by taking note of times, dates and location of incidents. And they hope it will lead to people giving descriptions and names of people involved in incidents.

The initiative was launched at Bingley police station.