A police officer’s most-used object isn’t handcuffs or a gun, it’s a notebook where they handwrite events from the day. This black leather binder has been a staple in the New York Police Department for almost 200 years and, as of Monday, it’s been replaced with an iPhone app.
With more than 35,000 officers on the force, the NYPD is the largest law enforcement agency in the United States. In 2018, the department issued iPhones to each of its officers, which has reportedly improved their response times. Now, the smartphones will also be used to chronicle each officer’s daily activities.
According to the New York Times, the app was developed and tested by the NYPD, trading handwritten notes for pre-set fields and physical supervisor sign-offs for finger swipes on a phone screen. All of this is then stored in a database that can be monitored remotely.
Deputy Chief Anthony Tasso, commanding officer of the department’s Information Technology Bureau, told the Times that the app’s standardized format will also allow the department to collect “clean data,” making it easier for the brass to hold their officers accountable. However, Tasso insisted the change was not intended to be used against officers as a means of surveillance, but, rather, to improve their ability to fight crime.
Jessica Tisch, the head of the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, spearheaded the idea for the app in her former position as the NYPD’s technology chief. She told the New York Post that she started pushing for digitization because she found the process of handwriting everything cumbersome.
“Imagine how many activity logs officers use every year,” Tisch said. “So the activity log for me for a very long time was one of the most appealing candidates for modernization. For me it was like the holy grail.”
