Police Officers Lose Their Mobile Phones

from the no-more-calls dept

In a budget cutting effort, police in Oakland California are having their mobile phones taken away. Apparently, police on various beats were given mobile phones, which they used to stay in contact with people and organizations in the area they covered. It appears they gave out the numbers regularly, as they continually were dealing with incoming phone calls from residents reporting suspicious behaviors. So, not only were the phones removed for cost cutting reasons, but because the calls were beginning to become overwhelming. There is a reason that the police have a centralized dispatcher, and routing around it doesn't always make sense. While it is a nice idea to give residents direct communication tools with those patrolling their neighborhoods, without an efficient means of routing those calls, it's no surprise they quickly became overwhelming.
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  • identicon
    Gary, 12 Jul 2004 @ 7:46am

    police and cell phones

    Police having cell phones allowed them to communication with other officers without there converstations being recorded over the air.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2004 @ 11:15am

      Re: police and cell phones

      so what ?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        msykes, 12 Jul 2004 @ 1:15pm

        Re: police and cell phones

        I'm sure if all the police officers wanted to do was talk to other officers over the air without being recorded they could just go ahead and use their personal cell phones.

        msykes

        link to this | view in chronology ]


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