The NYPD is officially retiring physical memo books and replacing them with an iPhone app
- The NYPD is retiring the use of pen-and-paper memo books and replacing them with an iPhone app, the New York Times reported Thursday.
- The app will pool officers' notes into a central system where other officers will be able to access them.
- NYPD officials said this would help collaborative police work as well as eliminating abuses like officers making fake entries.
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Later this month the New York Police Department is waving goodbye to a long-serving staple of police work - the memo book.
The New York Times' Corey Kilgannon reports the NYPD is officially retiring memo books on February 17. They will be replaced by a new specialised app that will come loaded onto officers' department-issued iPhones.
Significantly the app will pull officers' notes into a data base where other officers will be able to access them, and pegged to a time and location inputted by the officer.
"It gives us the abilities we did not have before, when memo books were left in officers' lockers and we didn't have access to a vast amount of information," NYPD Deputy Chief Anthony Tasso told the Times. Officials said the system would also help eliminate the problem of indecipherable handwriting, and prevent officers from faking log entries.
Tasso added that since 911 information is routed through officers' phones, that data can be bundled into log entries automatically.
The change is not universally welcomed within the police according to the Times, some officers fear the change will expose officers to onerous levels of surveillance and bureaucracy, while others will simply miss using pen and paper.
"There's a lot of nostalgia to keeping these logs [...] I'm a pen and paper guy, so it's a big change. For the younger guys, it's an easier transition," one officer of 14 years told the Times.
