Knowing where officers are and voting on the policing priorities are two features that residents of the Surrey Borough of Runnymede are able now to do at the touch of a button.

The newly launched interactive smartphone app Surrey Police Beat is the latest tool in the armoury for neighbourhood officers to have two-way direct contact with the public.

The app allows users, through a Twitter feed, to have a live record of where their local officers are, through geo-coding, and what they are doing.

And with a host of features, chief officers are hoping that the product will promote greater engagement – and build important relationships at a local level.

Surrey Police CC Mark Rowley said: "There has been a lot of bad publicity recently about Twitter and policing and today we can turn all that on its head.

"What we are trying to do with Surrey Police Beat is to make visible what their local officers are doing for them on a day to day basis. It also allows the public to comment, so it is a two-way flow and it is more dynamic that anything we have had before."

The app, developed by Multizone, an independent UK-based social and mobile software firm, is free to download from the Apple iPhone App Store and will soon be available for the Google Android market and BlackBerry.

There are plans in place to roll the smartphone technology to the whole force.

Angus Fox, Director at Multizone said: "Other forces are all watching to see what happens in Surrey. We have lots of support from the Home Office, the NPIA and from ACPO, who are keen to help us take it out to more forces, with their guidance.

There is interest from a range of different forces to Surrey, including Scottish forces, so it is making us think about developing its capability," he added.

The work in Surrey has been supported by the Home Office who are keen to develop innovative ways to deliver greater transparency locally as the next stage in the development of Police.uk – the national crime mapping website.

The launch event at Runnymede Civic Centre was attended by key stakeholders, Surrey Police Authority, local council leaders and Vodafone and Huawei who both supported the trial by supplying phones for patrolling officers to use.

Runnymede Borough Inspector, Roger Nield (pictured) said: "This is about having a conversation with the public and finding out what the public want.

"It saves time for us as it helps us to getting messages across the public very quickly and real people on the street can understand what we are doing."

For an online demonstration of the app, see below: