Many public apps come in handy during my workday: Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, FlipClock, QuickVoice, Dropbox, Jumbo Calculator, WeatherBug, Skype, GoogleVoice to name a few. Since most of LPD’s information resources are Intranet-based, a browser opens the door to almost all of our records management system: reports, case files, master name index, police contacts, criminal histories, vehicle information, stats, and more. Our web-served mugshots look great on an iPad.
We publish tons of reference materials on our Intranet: policy manuals, lookup tables, various directories, and so forth. Web-served legal resources such as the Lincoln Municipal Code and the Nebraska State Statutes, come in handy, as does the City Council agenda, the legislation pending in the Nebraska Legislature, the State Sex Offender Registry, and the Department of Correctional Services Inmate Locator.
Our shift roll call assemblies (we call it lineup) are webcast using gotomeeting.com, and the iPad GoToMeeting app is perfect when I can’t attend in person. TipSoft’s mobile application works great for keeping up on Crimestoppers tip,.
Mapping is a real strong suit of the iPad, and since I am a major GIS geek, I have a lot of map applications. MotionX-GPS Drive HD is an excellent navigation app, and the Google Earth iPad app is mildly addictive. Google Maps soars on the iPad, and the Streetview feature seems born for the tablet form factor. I can use some of the web-based mapping applications such as crimemapping.com , and ESRI’s ArcGIS for iOS lets me access my own custom-built web maps of crimes and incidents. Lincoln has just acquired a new set of oblique aerial imagery, and the Pictometry Online web application works provides access to those images on the iPad.
Just as soon as the police mobile data application vendors catch up with the rapidly-changing world of mobile computing, I’m betting tablets take over from the hardened docked laptops in a few hundred thousand police patrol cars around the United States. Click the image below (and be patient) if you'd like to see some screenshots representing examples of how I use my iPad at work.
16 comments:
Wow, Chief, that is cool...whoda thunk it 30 years ago that you would be doing so much with so little!!
I agree with you that soon all the units will have no more in-car computers and all the officers will be carrying them!
Thanks for sharing, it was interesting.
~V~
Those are some good links. This is my favorite App for the iPhone and iPad.
Thanks very much for sharing Chief. One app you may have but I didn't see on your work "page" is Evernote. If you don't have that - you should check it out. Great "cloud" application - supports notes, video, photos, voice memos etc. Free version supported by small ads. Has a client for every platform, iPad, iPhone, Win, Mac, Android, Blackberry etc. Great place for you to store your manuals, docs etc - and access them everywhere.
Apple's iBooks application also functions as a great .PDF reader if your documentation is in that format. <>
This news item seems timely.
are these gadgets going to be in use while driving? i've personally almost got hit by an officer veering into my lane because he was staring at his laptop one night after work, another night I saw a trooper so distracted that he wasn't driving right, however he ended up pulling over
No games on your iPad? I took you for an Angry Birds player!
This is an excellent LE-related app for the iPad 8^D
Oh, the irony:
LARC-FROM BUILDING B1-005246 REMOVED FROM CASES AND TAKEN FROM LIBRARY 3 DVD'S (LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, INSIDE MAN, SHADES OF DARKNESS)
11:39 Yeah we are all going to be driving around with them in our lap bouncing off the curbs so you can whine and gripe. Please. There is a proper way to handle these things. Get the cruiser number and call a Supervisor. Don't get on a blog and complain about every little gripe you have against cops. The world is not perfect but there is a proper way to deal with these types of issues.
This is not.
Anonymous 6:26:
I agree totally. You are SO correct in your assessment of the 11:39 comment. That was ridiculous and ignorant. Tsk Tsk.
i'm 11:39 and I wasn't griping I was stating a safety concern that I have with these devices being used in a moving 2 ton hunk of steel! it's no different than texting while driving, which we now have laws against... the whole reason for allowing comments on a public blog is to add to the discussion of the topic at hand, if we have people staring at their laptops, pads, pdas, phones, etc. at night and can't drive, I think that's an issue that needs to be discussed before something does happen If I really wanted to gripe I WOULD have called him in to his supervisor, but people make mistakes that would have been overkill for the moment, he looked at me and knew he erred, that was enough for me
Can I make the joke about watching videos on the iPad, or is that still a touchy subject?
I think it was quite considerate of 11:39 to ask an intelligent question on the Chief's Blog about something she does not know. She is right, Officers drive 8 to 12 hours a day and are going to make mistakes because we are human too. I commend her for realizing that. To tell her to call a supervisor and make a complaint about something so small seems to be the way the police department is going nowadays. No wonder we get treated like children.
Obviously 11:39 was griping. She could have just asked the question without bringing up her brushes with death by being struck be officers driving distracted. My point being, either let it go and move on or do something about it(like complain to the right people). A question asking if we're going to be allowed to use them while driving is a valid question. The rest is griping.
Chief, I know this is an older post but I am just looking at this issue and found the post helpful. We will are replacing an MDT in a car this year with a laptop. If it works as well as I hope, we will issue iPads to each officer.
Our RMS/CAD vendor uses Terminal Server Gateway Remote Desktop to deploy field computing and we will be using the app iTap to facilitate communication. I have been using it for about three months and find it a little geeky but think it will be pretty useful.
Thanks for the blog!
Good luck, Brad. Keep an eye peeled for the Panasonic Tough Tablet, later this year. Also, have a look in my blog for P3i.
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