British Transport Police will be starting off the new year equipped with the latest tool in high tech crime fighting - a PDA:
PDAs are the most significant advance in police beat technology since the introduction of personal radios in 1967. By the end of January 2007 all officers in BTP’s Reassurance teams will be using their PDAs to obtain an instant check on a person’s criminal history and be able to link that person to their registered address helping officers better detect those trying to deceive. Intelligence information can also be updated into the central system as soon as it is obtained from an encounter and instantly viewed by other officers. This helps officers to identify criminals swiftly and take the appropriate action to keep the Underground safe and secure.
You can get sodoku on them too. Bit 2003 though. Can't they stretch to a PSP? Whatever - we're still going to trademark iPlod.
“I can update the incident log myself now without having to radio in the information. This means everyone who looks at the log is getting a detailed first-hand intelligence because I’m there at the scene putting the information in. My PDA also helps me better assess a situation when I have access to the information other officers have previously collected.”
Sounds suspiciously like a prototype hive mind to us. Handed out in January... probably be March before they find a way to abuse them.
The bottom of the press release reads "If you would like to see officers in action using PDAs please call the press office". Don't tempt us like that when we're drinking...
