The NYPD equipped with Android Phones to fight crime
400 Android phones have been distributed to officers in the New York Police Department since last summer as a part of a secret pilot program against the organized crime. According to The New York Times, the new phones are not able to make or receive calls and their purpose is to access the individual criminal records through data connection. A special developed app is helping cops to check any individual details and to verify his or her identity. The person’s profile with picture will be visualized on the screen, together with information from the Department of Vehicles.
The devices are easy to use. The officers just need to type in an address into the application, and they will see any criminal records for people living in that address, previous police summons, any registered guns and other police information. The technology offers great level of details and it is significantly different from the software installed in the patrol cars. While the access to information using laptops is slow, the phone offers a lot of different databases with only one entry point, without the need for entering different passwords.
Despite the critics, saying that the technology can be a vehicle for rounding up the usual suspect and harassing people, many people believe that the technology can significantly improve public safety and the efficiency of NYPD.
Source: BGR
