The New York Police Department (NYPD) began giving away Android smartphones to its officers as part of a new pilot to improve public safety. According to the New York Times’ story, some 400 devices have already been distributed, providing officers with detailed access to police data while on the move.
Apparently these phones can’t be used for making or receiving phone calls, but thanks to the built-in data connection and an appropriate software running on the server, officers can quickly look-up into suspects’ criminal history, verify identities using police photographs and access vehicle registrations. In fact, it is said that these smartphones can access more information than computers found in patrol cars, which are often slow and require logging into different databases to retrieve information.
Pretty powerful stuff that promises to make the police department more efficient while making our streets safer. We wouldn’t be surprised to see similar systems implemented across police departments all around the world…
[Via: TheVerge]