CIO has a sweet-sounding report about The Policeman’s New Partner: iPhone. They fawn over a concept that they call “one of the coolest apps never to appear on the App Store”.
Not in the store? That suggests to the reader a kind of exclusiveness. Should we want it more now? On the other hand, it also suggests a lack of market validation such as feedback. My guess is that CIO wants to imply the former rather than the latter. Take this quote, for example:
During his three-decade police career, [retired assistant chief] Bostic wore many hats at the LAPD, including overseeing some IT functions and communications. “In police work, we’re probably 20 years behind in technological capability,” he says. “We’re using the same handheld radio that costs many thousands of dollars but has a thousand times less capability than the cell phone that I have on my hip.”
Define capability. If we are talking about availability, such as sending/receiving messages when required, than that handheld radio has the iPhone beat by a mile. If we are talking about availability in terms of resistance to physical damage and failure, then that handheld radio has the iPhone beat by two miles.
I suppose if being a Police officer only involved wearing cashmere turtlenecks and nobby slippers while driving around tucked safely into calfskin Porsche seats then the iPhone would be an excellent option. The first little bump in the road or distance from cell tower, however, and the venerable radio would be the more capable choice. It seems clear (pun not intended) that a glass-faced touch-screen loosely cabled in an unsealed box does not meet the basic level of capability.
Another clue to bias in the CIO article is this quote
Imagine undercover officers milling around with an iPhone or Droid (One Force Tracker also has a Droid version) and earbuds, while secretly communicating with each other and knowing the locations of other officers. “Everyone has an iPhone so you don’t stick out,” Bostic says.
Everyone has an iPhone? Last time I checked Android, BlackBerry and Symbian all were far more popular and by a large margin. The iPhone only sold more phones than Microsoft. Granted, a cell-phone is less obvious than a police radio for communication, but this is not a reason to develop a specialized application for an iPhone. An application developed for police that runs only on iPhone will actually increase the ability to spot them, just like having a specialized radio.
The reasons for a Police iPhone do not stack up for me. This article could have been written from a far more realistic (i.e. tax-payer) perspective instead of Apple marketing. Perhaps something like “Smart phones found capable for police work” would make the most sense given all the examples of Sprint and Android already in use.