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BlackBerrys for coppers: UK law enforcement to smarten up in 2010

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 16th 2009 @ 9:01AM

Police men and women of Blighty are about to step into the 21st century, albeit a decade late, with a new weapon in the fight against boredom on the beat. The BBC reports that smartphones will become standard issue throughout the Queen's realm by March 2010, as a result of successful trials carried out in 30 constabularies through this year. Improved "operational efficiency" and reduced bureaucracy are argued as the key benefits, with a solid 30 minutes less time being spent in police stations each day. And we're absolutely positive that extra half hour will go toward increased "visibility in the community" and not checking out friends' Facebook status updates. No, really!

Read -- BBC report
Read -- Bedfordshire case study

London Police launch SMS service to call for help

by Sean Cooper posted Feb 9th 2009 @ 12:38AM

The London City Police -- or Bobbies, cuz that's infinitely cuter -- has launched a new service whereby the citizenry can drop an SMS to the law in an emergency instead of calling it in. The new SMS service is replacing the typetalk and textphone systems for people with speech, and hearing difficulties. Of course, the service is open to all city residents by just SMSing 07940 500 500, leaving details of who you are, what's happening, and where. The SMS system will send out a reply as soon as the Police get your message. We think this could actually prove handy if your situation requires stealth, or you're hiding in a dumpster after being chased, or something.

[Via Textually.org]

Cops adopt SMS tip lines to help fight crime, find out where the party is

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jul 3rd 2008 @ 9:23AM

Apparently, law enforcement is seriously stepping into the 21st century. According to a report, police dep artments in Boston, Cincinnati and over 100 other communities have begun using a text message tip-line in the hopes that cellphone-savvy youngsters will alert them if they see a crime being committed, or know of one ahead of time. "It's obvious that the future of communication is texting," said Boston Police Crime Stoppers commander (and techno-visionary) Michael Charbonnier, adding that the department's system as yielded, "Some great drug information, specific times, dates, names of suspects, locations, pickup times, [and] license plate numbers." The only roadblock? Getting cops to understand that OMG doesn't refer to a terrorist attack.

Robber holds up bank, doesn't bother to get off his cellphone

by Darren Murph posted Apr 17th 2008 @ 6:14AM

Make no mistake, we've seen some fairly boneheaded moves made by technologically-illiterate bank robbers, but the latest case involves a fellow who was quite the opposite of that. Yes, the 20 to 25 year male who decided to hold up an Alabama bank the day before his taxes were due actually did the deed without hanging up his cellphone. And there's surveillance footage to prove it. Quite honestly, we can't imagine what the conversation here would've been like, but at least he made the most of whatever minutes he had remaining as a free man, right?

[Via textually]

South Korean police aiming to equip all new handsets with GPS?

by Darren Murph posted Mar 29th 2008 @ 12:40PM

Presumably taking a note from Japan, it's being reported that South Korean police are backing a highly controversial plan that would equip each new mobile sold in the nation with a GPS chip. Reportedly, Song Kang-ho, chief of the investigation bureau of the National Police Agency, has stated that the government has "already submitted a related bill to the National Assembly," and the general idea here is to crack down on the rise of kidnapping and various other crimes against children and women (not much different than we Americans having such a chip for E911, really). Granted, there's not a lot of supporting evidence that this is actually set to go down, so until we see it inked in stone, our skeptic hats are remaining in place.

[Via textually, image courtesy of The New York Times]

Duo steals hundreds of iPhones, sells them all to one person

by Darren Murph posted Mar 27th 2008 @ 3:57PM

Apple's no stranger to having its wares ganked (a lot), but this one really has us scratching our noggins some kind of fierce. Apparently a couple of meddlesome 20-somethings working at a Salem, New Hampshire Apple store managed to scoot away with somewhere between 330 and 700 iPhones. After somehow stuffing that many handsets into a panel van / pickup truck / privately owned C-130, they seemingly sweet talked a single high-roller into snatching up their entire stash for upwards of $138,000 -- which could be a bargain (or not) depending on the actual quantity included in the deal, internal capacity, etc. Minutiae aside, both individuals are currently residing under the strong arm of the law (surveillance cameras are hard to dodge), but curiously, nothing is mentioned about the buyer who didn't find spending over a hundred large with a couple of average joes (who just happened to have an inordinately large amount of iPhones for sale) the least bit odd.

[Thanks, Scott]

New Zealand's fuzz want carriers to save text messages

by Chris Ziegler posted Mar 10th 2008 @ 9:45PM

Carriers usually don't store text messages these days -- or, at the very least, they're smart enough to claim that they don't, or barring even that, they're trying to move away from storing 'em. In a society that values what little privacy it has left, we figure that coming out and telling your customers that their most intimate 160-character communiques are being locked away ad infinitum on some hard drive in a windowless tower somewhere is a recipe for backlash. Indeed, Vodafone's Kiwi outpost doesn't keep texts any longer than it has to, and New Zealand Telecom has said that it'll stop before the end of the year, but the local police have a different idea in mind. Authorities say that they want the ability to sift through messages, and that it won't be a privacy concern because they'll only get down to business after having obtained the proper warrant. That's all well and good, and we can sorta see where the cops are coming from here, except that means carriers are still going to be required to persist the SMSes to begin with -- a privacy concern in itself. The sitch is shaping up to be a bit of a deadlock, though the government is hoping everyone can come to terms without legislation being required. We're not counting on it.

[Via textually.org]

Cellphone criminal dubbed "dumbest" by police

by Darren Murph posted Jan 9th 2008 @ 2:01AM

Rest assured, we've seen some brainless criminals in our day, but this one ranks pretty high on the list. Reportedly, a (potentially inebriated) individual waltzed into a police station and frantically announced that his phone had been stolen at gunpoint. When the detective called the number of the phone reportedly stolen, however, a ring was heard from the "victim's" pocket. After pondering what the criminal hoped to gain from the situation, we here at Engadget HQ came up empty, and apparently, the police involved in the situation were equally stumped -- so stumped, in fact, that they issued a statement entitled "Dumbest criminal?" with details of the event in a local newspaper. We'd say that sums it up fairly accurately.

[Image courtesy of FOTW, thanks LordFarkward]

City of Chicago sued for illegally ticketing in-car yappers

by Darren Murph posted Dec 21st 2007 @ 7:22PM

So, you've got an outstanding ticket from talking while behind the wheel in Chicago, do you? Meet attorney Blake Horwitz, who is now likely to be the best friend you don't even know. Reportedly, Mr. Horwitz is suing the city and claiming that arrests of citizens caught driving and talking were in fact illegal, and furthermore, he's demanding that Chicago "dismiss any outstanding tickets and refund almost $2 million in fines collected since 2005." Apparently, the actual law that prevents users from yapping and motoring requires that the city erect signs that instruct drivers not to converse while driving, yet such signs have purportedly not been posted across Chi-town. The devil's in the details, we suppose.

[Image courtesy of ImportTuner]

Texting, talking at the wheel could land Brits in jail

by Darren Murph posted Dec 21st 2007 @ 9:58AM

We already knew that UK motorists caught driving while texting (or vice-versa) could face a penalty of two whole years in the slammer, but now it seems that merely talking while controlling a motor vehicle could land you in the exact same predicament. Reportedly, British drivers caught chatting on a handset or sending an SMS while on the road "could be jailed" under new guidelines that are expected to be published. In the most extreme cases, they could be tagged with "dangerous driving, which carries a two-year maximum sentence and an unlimited fine." Currently, these folks simply get slapped with an "automatic fine and three points on their license under the lesser charge of careless driving." But honestly, it's not like prison would be so bad for cellphone addicts -- after all, we hear some cells over there actually provide service.

[Image courtesy of MotorTrend]

Passengers evacuate plane after finding ownerless cellphone

by Darren Murph posted Oct 5th 2007 @ 3:31PM

Just in case last month's airport scare wasn't enough, today we're finding that an Alaska Airlines flight from San Jose was evacuated upon landing "after a passenger found an unclaimed cell phone tucked in his seat." Both the FBI and Port of Seattle police eventually concluded that the mobile "posed no safety threat," but apparently, it was worth looking into. When found, the handset "appeared to have been taken apart, put back together and shoved into the seat," but after all was said and done, no humans were injured, other flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were only delayed for about ten minutes and some poor soul is wishing he / she had opted for that cellphone insurance back in the day.

[Via SlashPhone]

Company claims its system hunts down phoning drivers

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 20th 2007 @ 8:09AM

Every once in a while, a device comes along whose stupidity is exceeded only by the individuals advocating its use; a device so confusing and controversial, it creates twice as many problems as it solves. Enter Highway Safety & Technology's "Cellular Detection System" (or as we like to call it, the "Automatic Civil Unrest Creation System"). The idea is this: through some magical, thoroughly unexplained array of "electronic sensing equipment," the system can somehow detect drivers talking on their phones and set the subsequent legal process in motion without any law enforcement involvement whatsoever. Never mind that other people in the car might be using their phones and the fact that headsets are almost always legal when handsets are not, we guess. The product is actually so ridiculous that we're leaning toward it being an elaborate hoax -- or we're hoping as much, anyway -- otherwise it'll allegedly be available to overzealous municipalities this fall.

[Via Techdirt]

LG and Prada present potential retailers with long list of demands

by Sean Cooper posted Apr 18th 2007 @ 9:15AM

It's encouraging to see LG and Prada upholding the stereotype of the haute couture fashionista by providing potential LG Prada phone retailers with a hysterical list of "retail space" demands. In order to be deemed worthy, retailers apparently need to submit both indoor and outdoor shots of the store and follow an eleven-page document (supplied by LG and Prada, naturally) to the letter to ensure that all is laid out to spec. Said document details the 17 "LG Prada Phone" commandments (calling it the "LG Prada phone" is actually one of them) including details about font sizes in your signage and background color -- "black (preferably), white, or 60-70% black (grey)". We love this attention to minutiae and are really hoping LG will have an elite group of Prada Phone Police wearing severe leather outfits ready to hand out citations to any careless shopkeeper.

Mobile speed cameras to suprise chatty motorists with penalties

by Jeannie Choe posted Feb 28th 2007 @ 2:16AM

Nowadays, we're lucky to be able to so much as breathe air while driving without getting penalized. As of late, motorists in South Yorkshire have quite the incentive to keep their phone conversations under wraps while in transit. Mobile speed cameras, traditionally used to catch speeders, will be used by police to catch unsuspecting chit-chatters in the act, who would later receive an unexpected notice showing 3 points on their license and a demand for £60, which was recently, and perhaps not-so-coincidentally, increased from £30. "If officers using mobile cameras see someone using a hand-held phone, whether with their own eyes or through the lens of their camera, then they are fair game." There's been no word on plans for similar implementation within the automated camera system, but "that is not to say that we can't change the policy," states Meredydd Hughes, the head of roads policing for the Association of Chief Constables. Drivers may soon feel compelled to throw down some cash for a headset, although there's even been speculation on the perils of hands-free yapping -- looks like a good tint-job's the last resort... and how about some spinners while you're at it?

[Via Textually]

Tourist nearly tumbles down Niagara Falls to retrieve mysterious cellphone

by Darren Murph posted Feb 15th 2007 @ 10:47AM

We've heard of filing larceny charges in an attempt to retrieve a highly desired cellphone, but risking your life at Niagara Falls? Apparently, a Polish tourist studying English in Lancaster, Pennsylvania wasn't exactly fazed by the treacherous surroundings at Terrapin Point, as he slid to within 50 feet of the falls before finally stopping. Whilst frolicking about on the obviously icy terrain, 29-year old Waldek Kubicki slipped about 200 feet down a rock after "trying to pick up his cellphone," and remained stranded for around 45 minutes until rescuers came and roped him up. Of course, the mystery here is simple: which (potentially unavailable in the US) phone do you think was worth nearly plummeting into an abyss for?