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Samsung
‘Ello ‘ello ‘ello, what’s all this then? Police in Yorkshire are ditching notebooks for Notes, with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 cutting out the paperwork to put bobbies back on the beat.
West Yorkshire police has ordered 4,000 Note 3 mobile devices to record information while fighting crime. The Note line is Samsung’s range of phablets, with the Note 3 measuring 5.7 inches. Notes come with an S Pen stylus for easily writing stuff on the screen.
Jamie Beck
The Notes include special policing-focused secure apps that enable officers to record a crime without having to return to the station, cutting admin and giving them more time on the beat. Bobbies can take witness statements and fill out missing person forms on their Note.
“As we face Government cuts of over £160 million between 2010 and 2017,” says West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Mark Burns-Williamson, “it is imperative that we continue to look towards new ways of working that ensure our neighbourhoods are safe and feel safe.” The devices are paid for by a “transformation fund.” Individual Note 3s now cost around £400 in shops.
The Note 3 has this year been supplanted by the Galaxy Note 4 , which adds a metal frame and makes a leap in resolution from the 3’s 1080p display to a 2,650×1,440-pixel quad HD AMOLED screen.
In 2012 the National Audit Office criticised police use of mobile devices, finding that they didn’t provide enough benefit to officers compared to the cost £80 million cost across the country. But more recently London’s Metropolitan Police Service has announced a three-year, £200m IT transformation plan that includes provision to equip officers with mobile devices — including around 500 iPad mini tablets — for taking statements and photographing crime scenes.
