Last summer’s riots in London showed the Metropolitan Police what the combination of angry people and smartphones can do, so this time around they’re planning on being the guys with technology on their side, with the release of an official City of London Police app.
The idea behind the app (iOS only for now, though they promise there’s an Android version in the works) is to allow the police to create heat maps of people to track crowds and plot congestion. It’ll also have patronising little checklists to help you remember to pack lots of water (maybe a brolly would be more sensible), and a direct link to the Met’s Twitter feed.
It sounds all well and good, but since it relies on users downloading the app and then letting it access their location data, I’m not sure it’ll get enough people using it to make it worthwhile — more than anything else, having your GPS on all day will kill battery life, which is a bit of a bummer. Still, it’s nice to know that the Met is open to a bit of app wizadry, and you never know, if it gets enough people on board it might actually start being useful rather than just a waste of police budget. [Telegraph]
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Image: Surian Soosay, CC2.0