Think Public Safety

Smartphones are not the answer Author: Richard Bennett

Created Oct 24 2014, 5:00 AM by Paul Jeffs

You would not send police officers out on patrol in the family car. Yet every day, thousands of police officers go on patrol with the same smartphones as used by their teenage daughters.

It certainly costs less, but can end up being very costly. Here are three good reasons why consumer smartphones are not the answer for police officers on the street:

Consumer smartphones are not built for everyday street use. It's long been said: "If you want to break something, give it to a cop." Police officers are as tough on their equipment as their job is tough on them. They need equipment that can survive cold, heat, rain, dust, and being dropped. A consumer smartphone is great at Angry Birds; but unlike an Angry Bird a smartphone does not get back up and carry on once it’s been dropped!

A lost smartphone is a gateway into your network. Actually, the smartphone breaking from a fall is not the worst thing that can happen. Far worse is if it lies there, still working. Police officers have been known to keep lots of sensitive data on their smartphone: from names, addresses and photos, to emails and work documents. What happens if the officer can't find it again? Who will find it? How will they use the information?

Just when you need it most …..the connection fails. Have you ever tried using your smartphone in a crowd at a football match to check the scores elsewhere or at concert to check the train times home? Sometimes it's nearly impossible to get a signal – that’s because there are thousands of people in a small area, all competing for a limited slice of wireless bandwidth. Consumer networks are likely to be saturated at precisely the time police officers need reliable access to information.

Police officers often require the power and versatility of smartphones to effectively do their job, but they need them to be rugged, managed and secure data devices with access to a network that doesn't quit when lives are on the line.

That's why we built the LEX 755 Mission Critical Handheld.

For more information, watch the video of the LEX series devices. And keep the family car and smartphone for family activities