UK cops to be kitted out with smartphones
'Just collared @doccrippen'
Smartphones look set to become the law of the land in Blighty, because it has been announced that most British police forces will be equipped with them by March 2010.
According to the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), which supports the police smartphone rollout, officers spend 30 minutes less per shift in police stations when equipped with smartphones.
Smartphone fuzz can, for example, remotely access databases and receive briefings when they're not collaring crooks, the NPIA said.
It’s still unclear how much giving a smartphone to every police officer in the UK will cost, but the government is believed to have put aside £80m ($130m/€87m) for the project.
To put that figure into content, Bedfordshire Police – one of 30 forces which already boast smartphone-equipped coppers – has said that the devices cost roughly £270 ($439/€294) per year, per officer.
Bedfordshire police officers used to spend 46 per cent of their time inside police buildings, Inspector Jim Hitch of Bedfordshire Police told the BBC. Since the introduction of smartphones that figure has fallen to 36 per cent, he claimed. ®
COMMENTS
while on the subject of email addresses for police
.. i was working with police in the mid 90s and one of them very seriously wanted to register 'thefilth.com' to use for his official email address. We checked, but sadly at the time domains cost way too much money and he didn't go ahead.
Jolyon
Missing some thing
Here in the states all most every police dept has computers in their cars that can access data bases. Need to run the guys name, go to the patrol car and you can see if he has warrants or what not. Police on foot would just call it in and get response back. So why do the cops in the UK need to go back to the station house other than to book some one ??
This is old....
The fuzz in Liverpool already have Blackberry's. Even the PCSO's have them......
Its good if you know a PCSO and you are trying to track down an ex who has skipped on council tax payments :D
hmmm
i suspect they will get the phones that they could get breifings over the phone and put in reports etc etc
but in reality after spending thausands of pounds on development of databases and software
they get used to make phonecalls and nothing else
guess its like video phone'ing everybody wants to do it but just not in this reality !
Out on the street doesn't mean they're working
I used to work for a company that was trying to roll out a mobile data solution for the police. I used to believe our own publicity that it was going to help the police be a whole load more effective. Then, one day I was standing in the City of London and watched how it took 15 police officers to arrest one guy for a misdemeanor and then stand around for 25 minutes chin wagging.
They may not be in the station but it doesn't mean they're working.
