Stop DWI (iOS, Android, Windows) From solving crimes to preventing them, technology has become integral in law enforcement’s efforts to keep people safe. Apps on mobile phones enable the community to connect with officials with just a few clicks of a button, and local departments are using it to their advantage.
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From solving crimes to preventing them, technology has become integral in law enforcement?s efforts to keep people safe.
?There?s so much going on in the community out there and obviously the police can?t be there all the time,? said Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol. ?Modern technology has made that so much easier for us.?
Apps on mobile phones enable the community to connect with officials with just a few clicks of a button, and local departments are using it to their advantage.
From preventing drunken driving to getting college students to their dorms safely, apps are being used in a variety of ways.
Have a Plan
In 2014, Oneida County Stop DWI launched its Have a Plan app, which is part of statewide Stop DWI initiatives.
?The app has eight features to it,? said Tom Giruzzi, coordinator of Oneida County?s Stop DWI program. ?One of the features is an area where you can list your designated drivers and their phone numbers.?
Other features include an impairment estimator, which uses information such as gender, weight and the number of drinks within a number of hours to estimate the user?s possible blood alcohol content level.
Users also can ?test their skills? by playing games designed to estimate whether or not they?re too impaired to drive.
?They might laugh and kid and joke about it while they?re consuming alcoholic beverages,? Giruzzi said. ?(But) if that?s the thing that?s going to get them to realize that they shouldn?t drive and should have an alternate plan to get home, I say have a ball with it.?
Another feature lists taxi and car services, and public transit in the user?s area that they can call for a ride home. Giruzzi said if Uber makes its way to the Utica area, it will be added as well.
Although Giruzzi didn?t have an exact number, he said Oneida County is within the top 10 statewide for the number of Have a Plan downloads. There have been around 7,000 downloads in the state, he said.
He credits the app as just one element contributing to declining DWI arrests. There were 693 DWI arrests in 2014, which was down from 734 in 2013, according to the county Stop DWI yearly report.
?It?s just another piece of the educational awareness puzzle,? he said.
Maciol agreed that apps such as these aid officers in the work they?re doing to prevent drunken driving.
?We have active DWI patrols on the streets in Oneida County every night of the week,? Maciol said. ?We do occasionally receive tips through various sites, including (Have a Plan) where people can anonymously report drunk drivers.?
Another app used to report tips is New York State Crime Stoppers, a statewide app that lets users submit photo tips, video tips or email tips. Each law enforcement department throughout the state is listed on the app.
The app states that its mission is to ?assist law enforcement throughout New York state by offering rewards of up to $2,500 for information leading to the apprehension and arrests of persons engaged in criminal activity.?
?There are a couple of those entities that we do get information from, that they receive (tips) in our community and they in turn forward it to law enforcement,? Maciol said. ?There?s a couple of them specifically targeting narcotics activity.?
Rave Guardian
Similar technology also is being utilized at Utica College where an app called Rave Guardian was introduced this year to help keep students safe on campus.
In addition to reporting suspicious activity and conversing with campus safety personnel, students can use it as a safety tool.
?The Guardian is like a personal panic button,? said Wayne Sullivan, director of campus safety.
Students can use their school email addresses to sign up for the app. They can list contact information for a ?guardian? ? a parent, friend or roommate ? to be notified in the case of an emergency, along with 911 and campus safety.
If a student has to walk somewhere at night, for example, he or she can set a safety timer to go off at the time they are expected to arrive at their destination.
?If they haven?t gotten to their destination and set that off, we?ll get a notification, their guardian will get a notification,? Sullivan said.
The app has a GPS system to locate students on campus if needed, although Sullivan said they haven?t had to do so yet.
The tips that they?ve received from students typically have been regarding suspicious activity in parking lots, Sullivan said.
See Something, Send Something
On a larger crime scale, people also can use their mobile phones to help fight terrorism ? at least in New York state.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month announced a new mobile app, See Something, Send Something, which is meant to make it simpler for the community to report suspicious activity possibly linked to terrorism.
Users can send a written statement or photos, and the appropriate officials are notified if action is needed.
As these apps and technologies are growing, law enforcement benefits from it, but there also are some hurdles, Maciol said.
One of them is the price of the apps. Although they?re typically free for users to download, those such as Have a Plan were purchased from state entities for local use.
?Technology does not come with a cheap price tag,? Maciol said.
Another problem arises between different generations. While the younger employees typically adapt to new technology quickly, ?there?s a little bit of a learning curve? with older employees, he said.
?There are a couple of drawbacks,? Maciol said, ?but we?ve benefited tremendously from the benefits of technology in policing.?
Sources: Uticaod