BBC news reports that the most UK police forces are to be equipped with smartphones by March 2010.
Gary Cairns of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) explains that officers with smartphones spend about 30 minutes less per shift in the police station than officers without smartphones – leaving them free for frontline duties.
The cost of the scheme is £80million – and it costs about £270 per officer, per year. 85% of officers offered smartphones take up the offer – although the BBC reporter seems to think this is a bit weak, I think it’s pretty impressive. I wonder what the figures would be like if every UK teacher was offered a smartphone? Or every student?
So what’s smart about these phones? Well, the article doesn’t mention what type of phone the officers will get. But they will enable officers to access key databases, like the Police National Computer and other information like criminal records, vehicle details, briefings and photographs of wanted or missing people. And they’ll let officers transmit information back to base.
Officers are interested in how GPS technologies can help them do their job – for instance, tagging streets with ‘useful’ information about who lives there, and what they’re known to the police for.
A bit big brother? Yes. While I can imagine how useful a googlemaps-police criminal database mash up app would be in the fight against crime, I know that people make mistakes. And how am I to check what information a police app might have on me? How can I correct inaccurate information? And how is information police might gather by mobile validated?
Each phone is password protected, and can be remotely wiped, making them fairly secure – but not impregnable. It would be scary to think of what would happen with a smartphone in the wrong hands. But the pros probably outweigh the cons here.
Finally, I wonder do these phones have facebook and twitter disabled? Officers might be spending 30 minutes or more in the frontline, but how useful is that if they’re sitting in a parked car, eyes glued to a little glowing screen?
