We have been following the progress of the NYPD’s Windows Phone roll-out for some years now, and by all accounts things are going great.

An any particular day more than 5,500 handsets are in service, and the officers credit it with preventing and solving crime much faster, with a 12% faster response time to incidents for example.

The department noted they chose the OS over iOS and Android for its security and manageability, and they are now looking to upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile to take enable new features, including connecting to the city’s array of security cameras or two-way digital dispatch.

The current Windows Phones (Lumia 640 XL and Lumia 830) feature the following capabilities via apps:

911: Officers are able to get 911 calls directly, without waiting for dispatchers to read the report.

Search: The app allows officers to comb through names, police records, license plates, warrants and any other details stored within its police database.

Crime Information Center: This is a bulletin board with wanted fliers, missing persons and safety alerts.

Messaging: Police send messages based on their assignments, rankings, precinct or location. The sender can set the messages to go out to a specific, geo-fenced location. The NYPD has used this for events like the Thanksgiving Parade and in emergencies like the Chelsea bombing near 23rd Street in September.

DD5: Otherwise known as the Case Management System, it’s a digital notepad that detectives use for complaint follow-ups.

Forms: Officers use this app to fill out paperwork, filing accident reports, domestic violence reports and aiding reports.

NYPD U: Cops can watch training videos, look at slideshows and take quizzes straight from their phones to stay up to date on the department’s latest policies.

“We’ve spent the past year and a half building out a platform, getting the data in order, and giving out the devices,” said Jessica Tisch, the department’s deputy commissioner for information technology. “Now that we have that platform, and it’s 36,000 officers strong, we plan to continue to build on it.”

The NYPD’s use of smartphones seems like the perfect usage case for Continuum for Phones, and though not mentioned, we hope this will indeed be the next phase of their project.