NYPD now has Android smartphone arsenal to pull up records, identify perps

[aGameOfThrones]

Thanks to an NYPD pilot program, over 400 officers have special Android smartphones that allow them to pull up suspect data on the spot, according to the New York Times. Patrol car-mounted laptops can be slow and cumbersome, while the call-disabled handsets (which look like Samsung's Rugby Smart in the image above) let patrolmen see a suspect's criminal record on the spot and even know if a felon hides drugs "in his left sock," according to one cop. The custom app can also dig up info like open warrants, arrest and incident records, orders of protection and photos of everyone who's been arrested in a particular building, for instance. They can even drum up the location of every video camera pointed at a particular spot -- so, watch where you spit that gum, scofflaw.


http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/12/nypd-now-has-android-smartphone-arsenal/

[belian78]

I work for a cellphone retailer, and this is old news really. Over a year ago I was finding myself getting into a discussion on the 4th and 5th amendments with a local cop because he was telling me about apps the dept used on their smartphones like this. He said most of his day now, even days off, is just running random license plates through his smartphone apps that links to the same network his patrol car laptops do. I quickly realized I'd better shut it or risk getting on his radar, but it infuriated me that he was so casual about it. I imagine dogooder cops all over the country do this.