The largest police force in the U.S. shuns iOS and Android, goes with Windows Phones

By Williams Pelegrin October 15, 2016

Nokia Lumia 830

At this point, it is fair to say that smartphones have been around for more than a few years. You would not know it if you were a New York Police Department officer, however, since it took the largest police force in the U.S. until 2015 to issue smartphones and email addresses. What smartphones did the NYPD choose, you ask? The Lumia 830 and Lumia 640 XL, reports CNET.

The NYPD’s decision to go with Microsoft’s mobile operating system seems to confound more than a few, since Windows Phone’s 2.3 percent U.S. market share is anemic when compared to Android’s 65.2 percent and iOS’ 30.9 percent. According to the report, however, the NYPD did look closely at the two latter platforms before opting for the former, arguing that its decision came down to better security features and remote management.

Related Videos

Opting for Windows Phone allowed New York City’s police force to work with Microsoft to create seven NYPD-specific apps. One such app includes 911, which allows officers to directly get 911 calls instead of having dispatchers read the reports to them. Thanks to the app, response times for crimes decreased by 12 percent compared to 2015’s statistics.

The apps also allow officers to do everything from filling and filing paperwork and reports to staying up to date on department policies, the latter of which used to require officers to travel to Queens in order to accomplish.

Switching to smartphones has already produced tangible benefits, such as being able to more quickly solve crimes and improve community relations by having folks directly reach out to officers. The switch has introduced some headaches, however, such as damaged and lost devices. Furthermore, some officers were worried about being tracked through their phones.

Even so, every NYPD officer is now equipped with a Windows Phone smartphone, with the force looking to upgrade to a Windows 10 Mobile device by 2017’s summer months. Whatever phone it opts for, the NYPD wants officers to be able to tap into New York City’s security cameras and to have two-way digital dispatches with other officers.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Mobile

Android does this one thing so much better than iOS, and it drives me crazy

Individual volume control sliders on a Samsung Galaxy S23

I’ve long been an iPhone user and always will be — it's just what's in my blood. Even though I’ve been dipping my toes into various Android devices since I started here at Digital Trends, my primary device is still an iPhone 14 Pro. There are a few reasons behind this decision: I’m heavily vested in the Apple ecosystem already, I bought the 1TB model to not worry about storage, and some apps I use don’t have a good enough Android equivalent.

Despite my personal choice of using iOS primarily, the more time I spend with Android, the more I notice things that it does way better than Apple’s iOS. And one of those things is how Android handles volume controls compared to iOS’ rather rudimentary and infuriating system. It may sound like a small thing to home in on, but it's something I just can't overlook.
Apple’s iOS volume controls are badly outdated

Mobile

I tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro cameras. Only one is a winner

The iPhone 14 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra's camera modules.

What happens when you put two of the very best cameras on two of the very best smartphones up against each other? We’re talking about the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Apple iPhone 14 Pro, a pair of devices that go head-to-head in almost all categories, with a strong and dedicated fanbase behind each one.

Over the course of several weeks, I found out which phone has the better camera, and the result is extremely interesting.
Galaxy S23 Ultra vs. iPhone 14 Pro: camera specs

Computing

PC gamers are flocking to Windows 11, new Steam survey says

Shadow of the Tomb Raider on the Alienware 34 QD-OLED.

According to the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey, more PC gamers are switching to using Windows 11. Although Windows 10 continues to top the charts, it's slowly losing users to Microsoft's newer operating system, as Windows 11 now compromises over a third of all operating systems in Steam's monthly survey.

It's happy news for Microsoft as Windows 11 continues to inch forward in the Steam Hardware Survey. While the survey doesn't include the software and hardware utilized by each and every gamer on the platform, it still shows us some significant averages. Microsoft has continued to push Windows 11 for new PCs, and the latest survey from Steam suggests that the effort is working.