Here's Me, Getting Mugged
posted by Zach Patton
Crime-fighting in New York City just got a whole lot tech-ier:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who built his fortune on innovations in information technology, announced a plan yesterday that will allow emergency 911 call centers and the popular 311 service line to receive digital photos and videos from callers.
The city will be the first in the nation to incorporate digital images into its 911 system, Mr. Bloomberg said, calling it a “revolutionary innovation in crime fighting.”
Cool, right?
“If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition, you’ll be able to transmit images to 911, or online to nyc.gov,” the mayor said in his annual State of the City address. “And we’ll start extending the same technology to 311 to allow New Yorkers to step forward and document nonemergency quality of life concerns, holding city agencies accountable for correcting them quickly and efficiently.”
I think it was a year ago or so that I remember a story reported about a boy walking to school who was approached by a stranger in a car asking for directions. Of course the stranger was attempting to abduct the child. Fortunately the boy knew what was going on and took pictures via his cell phone of the bad guy and his car, including the license plates. The boy transmitted the images to his mother's cell phone. Fortunately the boy got away and the pictures led to the arrest of the bad guy. Had he been abducted at least his mother had the pictures to give to the police. Great use of technology by a fast thinking kid! I am a retired police officer so this story really caught my eye.
Posted by: Tom Gee | Friday, January 19, 2007 at 11:26 AM