'PC David Copperfield', the officer behind the popular Policeman's Blog, has outed himself now that he is leaving the force.

Stuart Davidson, from Staffordshire, was one of the first police officers to write a blog.

The online diary, along with Police Inspector Blog, Blues And Twos and De-tec-tive, prompted the police authorities to issue guidelines on blogging.

Davidson kept his identity secret from his co-workers and only revealed himself when he decided to join the Canadian Police.

"I hope nobody goes away thinking that I'm 'disillusioned' with the job, because I'm not. I just happened to answer an advert in Police Review and one thing led to another (a bit like this blog really)," he said.

"The thing about the police is that once you've done it for a bit, it's difficult to imagine doing anything else, so I'm just hoping to be able to carry on with more of the same.

"It's a mistake to think that policing somewhere else in the world is going to be a paradise, free from the familiar pressures of manning, crime-recording and performance."

Davidson's blog has received over a million hits and he has turned it into a book called Wasting Police Time.

In the blog he wrote of his frustrations about the amount of paperwork needed in the job and how he had considered not arresting people so that he could remain on the street and not back at the station.