NewYorkPoliceDepartment
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NYPD pulls 2,990 body cameras after one catches fire
The NYPD's plan to outfit every officer with body cameras has run into trouble. The department has pulled about 2,990 Vievu LE-5 cameras across the city after one officer's camera caught fire near a Staten Island precinct. There's a "possible product defect" with the LE-5, the NYPD said in a statement, and it was removing existing models out of an "abundance of caution." Most of the force's 15,500 cameras (including LE-4 models) aren't affected.
iPhone encryption has locked out Manhattan cops just 74 times
You'll frequently hear law enforcement complain that it can't break the full-drive encryption in newer smartphone operating systems, but how often do the police run into that problem, really? Thanks to a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, you now have a better idea. The Manhattan District Attorney's office has revealed that, out of the 92 cases where an iPhone with iOS 8 has been involved so far, the cops have been locked out 74 times. District Attorney Cyrus Vance portrays this as proof that officers need backdoors or other forms of guaranteed access, noting that there's at least one case (in Illinois) where evidence from a victim's iPhone led to a conviction. Police shouldn't simply be told that there's "nothing [they] can do," he says.
NYPD's cruiser of the future knows if you're on the lam, can detect radiation
New York City's Police Department is one of the most well-financed in the world, and the prototype for its next-generation patrol car clearly reflects that. A rear-mounted infrared sensor scans, records and checks license plates against a database (yes, in real-time), not too far from a new radiation detector in the rear window. An in-car, dashboard-mounted surveillance camera captures video, which can be livestreamed to headquarters via a modem and power supply sitting in the trunk. If this all sounds spookily like Demolition Man's future police (pictured above), that's because it's very similar. Only one such prototype is cruising the streets thus far (in Brooklyn Heights), though the Wall Street Journal's report says the data it gathers is being implemented city-wide. It's unclear how much (all?) of this tech will make its way to the rest of the NYPD's vehicle force, though a variety of components are already in place on other cars. It's all part of a 13-page report prepared for exiting New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly centered on the concept of "NYPD2020" -- the NYPD in 10 years' time. A variety of other projects from that report are also in the works, though many are distinctly less exciting (an online, public database of incident reports, for instance).
NYPD begins testing long-distance gun detector as alternative to physical searches
As part of its ongoing effort to keep New York City safe, the NYPD has begun testing a new scanning device capable of detecting concealed firearms from a distance of about 16 feet. Developed in conjunction with the Department of Defense, the technology uses terahertz imaging detection to measure the radiation that humans naturally emit, and determine whether the flow of this radiation is impeded by a foreign object -- in this case, a gun. During a speech Tuesday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the device shows "a great deal of promise as a way of detecting weapons without a physical search." Kelly went on to say that the technology would only be deployed under "reasonably suspicious circumstances," though some civil liberties activists are already expressing concerns. "We find this proposal both intriguing and worrisome," New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman said in a statement, adding that the scanner could all too easily infringe upon civilian privacy. "If the NYPD is moving forward with this, the public needs more information about this technology, how it works and the dangers it presents." For now, the NYPD is only testing the device at a shooting range in the Bronx, and has yet to offer a timeline for its potential deployment.
Chevy Volts invade NYC police fleet, give cops all new ways to taze bros
New York's boys in blue will soon be able to creep up on evildoers with even more subtlety, thanks to some new electrified vehicles the city unveiled yesterday. As part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's environmentally-friendly PlaNYC initiative, 70 new EVs have been added to the city's fleet of public cars, in the hopes of lowering emissions and creating a "greener, greater New York City." Joining the force are ten Ford Transit Connect cargo vans, ten Navi-star E-star trucks and a full 50 Chevy Volts -- some of which will be used as NYPD squad cars. These newcomers will be shared among nine different departments, joining 360 other city plug-ins already purring their way across the five boroughs. Bloomberg is also working toward adding EVs to New York's army of 13,000 taxis -- which we're totally cool with, as long as they're not minivans. Zip past the break for a rather Homeric press release.
NYC keeps ahead of the curve, invests $1 million into typewriters
When we look upon the typewriter, we tend to think of it as a somewhat romantic, antiquated technology for the English major in us to write that great mystery novel we've been toying with -- not something we'd imagine anyone would still be using in a professional setting. Unfortunately for New York's boys in blue, that's exactly the situation they find themselves in. According to NY Post, the city has plunked down $982,269 in a contract with New Jersey-based Swintec to provide thousands of new manual electric typewriters bound for NYPD offices over the next three years, with another $99,570 going to a company for maintaining the current lineup. While arrest reports have thankfully gone the way of computers, property and evidence vouchers continue to be written up out the old fashioned way, with officers complaining about having to seek out ribbons when they (often) run dry. In some way, it's kind of funny... but mostly, it's just sad.[Via Yahoo! Tech]
NYPD to trial all-electric scooters next month
New York's finest will also be some of New York's greenest next month, when the NYPD begins field testing four all-electric scooters from Rhode Island-based Vectrix USA. Although twice as expensive as the gas-powered Piaggio scooters that the department currently uses -- and with a fraction of their range -- the Vectrix offers police three attractive benefits: reduced fuel costs, lowered vehicle emissions, and, more practically, the element of surprise -- the scooters' nearly-silent engines should allow two-wheeled cops to approach suspects with more discretion. Sounds like a winner to us, as long as officers don't try pulling some eminent domain crap on our outlet at Starbucks when they need to juice up.[Via Autoblog Green]
