POLICE in Sedgefield are the first in County Durham to take delivery of an alarm system.

The equipment will be used to target vulnerable buildings or repeat victims of burglaries.

The system does not need a power supply or a landline to work, using instead infra-red and mobile phone technology, which effectively means it can be used anywhere.

When the system detects a burglary, it sends a message to the base unit, which will in turn dial the police.

PC Neil Langthorne, crime prevention officer for Sedgefield borough, said: "The beauty of it is that it's reliable and flexible. I can't think of an application that it couldn't be used for.

"No-one else in the force has got it at the moment and it's quite exciting. We're hoping that we get some good results from it."

Sedgefield has bought two of the systems, which cost £1,500 each, paid for through the Community Safety Partnership.

The unit can detect movement outside buildings, as well as inside, is tamper-proof and has a panic facility on it.

One of the potential uses is where commercial and industrial units are being built, before any power supply has been installed.

Another use could be in vacant properties, which are often targeted by burglars for their boilers.

PC Langthorne said: "These properties don't have power or telephone lines connected and that's been a little bit of a hurdle for us in the past, but once this system's in we can protect these premises."