From social media guidelines to the tracking of iOS devices, the tech strategy of the New York City Police Department has made a lot of headlines lately. The latest modern update to the force has the NYPD equipping officers with a special crime-fighting Android app.

Earlier this week, the New York Daily News dropped a few early hints about the NYPD crime-fighting app, but the New York Times actually delivered the details regarding the software that is designed to give officers a wider range of situational awareness when out in the field. According to the report, the app will allow officers to instantly look up the address of a particular building and discover whether or not that building houses parolees, registered gun owners, or find out if a resident has an order of protection against them.

Perhaps most importantly, the app will also allow officers to see which addresses have prior domestic incident reports, a key piece of information that could indicate the nature of a new 911 call to a particular location. The app will also give foot patrol officers the ability to tap into the city's database and verify the identity of a suspect on the spot through Department of Motor Vehicles databases and police department arrest records. Another interesting feature reportedly included in the app is the ability to find any video surveillance cameras in the vicinity of a particular address.

While this app sounds like a huge leap forward for police officers, putting such an easily lost or stolen mobile device in the hands of foot patrol officers could, at some point, end up exposing a wealth of private information that would otherwise be unavailable to anyone without access to an NYPD patrol vehicle.

Another concern, raised by New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman, is the possibility that the app might lead to the abuse of citizens. Lieberman told the paper that she is concerned that the app might "become a vehicle to round up the usual suspects, to harass people."

Nevertheless, the program to distribute the smartphones, which only receive data and do not have the ability to make calls, will roll forward. According to the report, the NYPD has already equipped 400 officers with the special phones through a test program that began last summer.

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