The New Zealand law enforcement will be adopting Apple technology soon, with the government investing over $160 million over the next 10 years, in order to equip police officers with iPhones and iPads. This follows a 11 month pilot project and it will start off with a 3 month adoption by 6,086 officers, who will use the devices.
The idea is to reduce workload for officers on the job and this initiative is part of NZ Better Public Services program, that will also put 600 more officers into the field and increase the on foot patrol numbers by 70%. By giving the officers iPhones and iPads, the government is expected to save about half an hour per officer per shift, plus a total of extra 520,000 frontline hours. So, since time is money, this is quite a bunch of savings.
Using the gadgets, the police will access needed data on the go, instead of having to postpone that till the officer reaches a terminal or a computer to access files and data. Vodafone will also be partnering for this initiative, but the law enforcement will also keep using Gen-i as its carrier for administration and management personnel.
