How has technology helped you?

[lexanidubs09]

Hey all, I'm posting this for a friend (and former LEO) that lives in another state but he's looking for some first-person real-world experiences regarding technology. You're more than welcome to respond here or pm me your answers. If you aren't comfortable sharing information with a civilian pm me and I can get you directly into contact with him.

"To all of my current and previous Law Enforcement (LE) and Military brothers and sisters.

I am currently writing an article focused on technology, mainly on iOS / Android Apps for iOS, but Mac and PC is included; and how it is used, has been used by us in LE and Military and how it has helped, accomplished something, increased productivity or made your job easier and why.

So I am asking if you will reply and let me know what Apps and programs you have used, using, how it helped, advantages, etc. or the ones not to use. I want to have real world answers from the real world people using them. If you will be kind enough to message me on here or you can send me an email if you would prefer, just message me first for address. Thanks everyone"

[micro911]

I downloaded a ballistics program on my Android phone. I can enter the basic info and it gives me ballistics information at a given distance including wind effects. That is a pretty decent program in my opinion.

[TrailerparkTrash]

[RedVines]

We have the shotspotter app that gives us a little bit of a head start on shots fired calls.

Side note: I'm not a fan of ios/android apps for patrol work. My dept issued all of us android smart phones and we can use them to annotate body worn camera footage, among other things.

what i see are cops out on the street in their cars with their heads buried in their phones with absolutely no situational awareness. i know it's more of a training issue but for the new guys coming in that grew up with cell phones they just don't realize just how much tunnel vision they get when they use a smart phone in the field and how vulnerable that makes them.

[esy]

I agree that the ShotSpotter is some awesome technology.

I haven’t used any specific apps, but even before my department started issuing iPhones, I really only used the notes to dictate my narratives or the camera to take pictures.

[lexanidubs09]

Thank you all for the feedback. I'll be passing the information along. Stay safe out there.

[TrailerparkTrash]

[Spoilerv2]

My current unit recently received a few new vehicles. However none are equip with MDCs ( Mobile Dispatch Computers), but have radios. We are told we will be transitioning to an IOS based tablets. We currently took a step back two decades and work with paper logs.

We do use our iPhones and Androids to text and for navigation. Once we get the system, I’ll let you know if it’s better than the older MDC.

[esy]

[IrishJoe3]

I have the entire PC and VC codes on my phone......beats hauling a library around :P

[TrailerparkTrash]

[wpage]

Access to data and useful information

[esy]

[Big D]

I use online pill identifiers a lot. Pretty useful, just google pill identifier and a bunch of websites pop up, type in the info on the pills you found and it tells you what they are.