Fans are all of a twitter as they stay on the beat with policeman

MEET Pc Ed Rogerson, Britain's best bobby on the tweet.

The neighbourhood police officer for Harrogate and Starbeck is one of just a handful in the force who use the social networking site Twitter to write updates while out on patrol.

And after attracting more than 1,500 friends in only a few months, Pc Rogerson, 29, is believed to be the most popular in the country.

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He said: "I only took it up in November and I wasn't the first but I'm very surprised to be the most successful – it's brilliant.

"I have been stopped in the street a couple of times with people telling me they have seen me on the internet and saying they think it's really good. I just want to communicate with the people of Harrogate."

Pc Rogerson tweets almost every day under the user name hotelalph9 on subjects ranging from executing drug warrants and arresting burglary suspects, to local trivia and missing cats.

He said: "I try to tweet on my mobile phone in between dealing with things and will do it on anything really.

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"It is good because it is very immediate and people can ask me questions which I can answer directly.

"At the moment there are not a lot of policemen using it but I have a feeling its popularity is going to explode soon."

There are currently thought to be around 20 officers on the microblogging service in Britain, and with twitter feeds in Skipton, Richmond and Whitby, North Yorkshire Police are leading the way.

Insp Ian Thompson, of Richmond police, who also uses Twitter, said: "It is brilliant what Ed has achieved in such a short space of time. I'm out on patrol less so my updates are not quite as interesting but I still find I am getting followers from as far away as America.

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"A few days ago I put an appeal out to find a graffiti tag and got an answer back that very evening."

Claire Kelley, the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said: "I've been following Ed on Twitter for a while and am a bit of a fan actually. His updates are so interesting and it is an excellent way of informing the community about what the police do."