NSW Police promised $100 million for technology

The NSW police force will receive $100 million to go towards an expansion of its fleet of tablets, body-worn camers and mobile fingerprint scanners should the Baird Liberal government be re-elected.

NSW premier Mike Baird made the announcement in the lead up to the March 28 state election.

He said the money would go towards making NSW Police the most "technology-advanced" police force in the country.

The $100 million 'policing for tomorrow' fund would equip NSW Police with the "latest technology to keep them a step ahead of criminals", Baird said. 

“This package delivers more specialist police investigators to target the most serious offences and technology to make police work safer and quicker – meaning more time on the street combatting crime," he said in a statement.

"This fund will future-proof the NSW Police Force to ensure they have access to the latest and most innovative ways to respond to crime."

NSW Police will be able to bid for priority technology, which Baird listed currently as body-worn cameras, mobile tablets, mobile fingerprint scanners, and TruNarc testing machines for drug testing.

Just last month NSW Police said it had purchased and rolled out 500 Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphones to frontline officers.

The force has spent the past two years testing a variety of different devices to inform its mobility strategy.

NSWPF also late last year revealed it would train 1000 officers across 16 locations to use body-worn cameras in an effort to improve evidence gathering and police behaviour. NSW Police Minister Stuart Ayres had allocated $4 million to the rollout earlier in the year.

As part of his push for re-election, Baird also pledged to recruit a further 310 officers - 36 of which would be placed within the state force's cybercrime and fraud squad.

Thirty specialist investigators and six specialist forensic accountants, intelligence analysts and technical experts would be tasked with targeting internet fraud, hacking, money laundering and identity theft, Baird said.