Smartphones are joining the war on crime. Earlier this week Samsung announced that 2018's Galaxy S9 will be included with the duty vests worn by deputies in the Kit Carson County Sheriff’s Office in Burlington, Colorado. The phones will provide the deputies with another way to communicate from the field to the station house. In addition, they will be used as a body camera and as a tool to document the discovery of evidence. The digital cameras on the device will be helpful to the officers as will the push-to-talk walkie-talkie capabilities that will be available to them. The handsets will also help the Sheriff's Office locate their personnel.







The Galaxy S9 units used by the deputies will also connect to AT&T's FirstNet public safety communications platform. According to the FirstNet website, the platform "bring(s) 21st-century tools to public safety agencies and first responders, allowing them to get more information quickly and helping them to make faster and better decisions." Samsung says that the Galaxy S9 was the first phone to be certified FirstNet Ready. This means that first responders using the handset have priority and can pre-empt us mere consumers on FirstNet's Band 14 and throughout AT&T's 4G LTE network. All subsequent high-end Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets come FirstNet Ready.









The Galaxy S9's 3000mAh battery should last a shift or two on a single charge





The Visual Labs software on the Galaxy S9 will allow the Kit Carson County Sheriffs to livestream during their 'tour' (we watch a lot of cop shows) and record directly on their phone while command central can monitor all of this in real-time. And the feature won't prevent officers from using their Galaxy S9 to make phone calls. With its IP-68 certification rating, the phone can withstand all of the dust that is kicked up during a hot pursuit. It also can be submerged in nearly 5-feet of water for up to 30 minutes. The handset sports a 3000mAh battery, which should make it through at least one shift on a single charge, and it is driven by the Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform. And no, Android 1.6 Donut (from 2009) is not pre-installed. Actually, Android 9 Pie is on the beat.

