The Los Angeles Police Department has been labelled as corrupt and brutal for years, whether this is true or not, I don’t know, but one thing you can’t say about the LAPD is that it isn’t embracing the latest technology.
Emulating similar initiatives across the United States, the LAPD has launched an anonymous SMS text messaging tip-line so up-standing LA citizens and now tip off the cops on suspicious activity via text.
So another bow to the public in being able to report a crime to the law enforcers, but the thing is, if they don’t respond quickly to a phone call and get on scene fast, just what difference is a text message going to make?
Source – intomobile
Actually I can see one useful aspect - it means you can report a crime without drawing attention to yourself, so it might encourage more reporting. Hook it into GPS and it could be quite a clever system. But I agree, it’s only useful if it’s followed up with appropriate action.