A POLICE officer offered a glimpse into his life on the beat when he took to Twitter during his shift.

PC John Forster, of Darlington’s North Road police team, took over his team’s Twitter profile and tweeted live updates during his shift on Friday (January 11).

From 1pm until 9pm the officer, who covers the Northgate area of Darlington, tweeted 39 times updating his followers on everything he was doing, from searching for wanted criminals, to offering support to victims of crime.

PC Forster said: “I thought it worked quite well. I enjoyed it and it seemed other people enjoyed it too. I think it is quite interesting following someone as they go through their working day.

“Some of the things I talked about people would have had to research, but that makes it more interesting I think.”

The North Road police team regularly uses the social networking site to connect with its 232 followers and provides information of upcoming events and meetings, but this was the first time an officer has used the site to tweet live updates during a shift.

“I was going to be honest, so if it was a quiet shift I would have said it was quiet, but it was a good shift to choose and there was plenty going on,” said PC Forster.

“I will do another one in the future on a different shift, like a midweek one to get a bit of variety.”

To follow the team visit their Twitter profile at twitter.com/Darl_NHPT_north