NYPD Begins Rolling Out iPhone 7 and 7 Plus Models to Manhattan Officers

The New York Police Department has started giving out iPhones to its officers as it makes the move from Windows-based Nokia phones to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

According to a new report from the Daily News, the NYPD is rolling out iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus smartphones to Manhattan officers to replace 36,000 Windows Phones which it had supplied to them in 2016. Last year, the NYPD announced that it would be replacing those phones with an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus due to Microsoft stopping support for its mobile system.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Information and Technology, Jessica Tisch explains: “We’re seeing a lot of excitement at the rollout of 600 phones per day, initially in the Manhattan South Patrol Borough with expansion to follow.”

iPhones offer much more than their predecessors in the realm of police use with criminal background checks, real-time video streams, and even 911 dispatch all being controlled from a single device. “I truly feel like it’s the ultimate tool to have as a patrol cop,” said Police Officer Christopher Clampitt.

“When cops are responding to a job, the phone will automatically provide them with the criminal history of the location, such as how many 911 calls have been at the address in the past and what type of calls,” reads the report. “The phone also tells the officers if any wanted felons are at the address.”

Before the iPhone rollout, the NYPD‘s smartphones of choice were Nokia’s Lumia 830 and Lumia 640 XL, released in October 2014 and March 2015, respectively. The discontinued devices run Windows Phone 8.1, which Microsoft ended support for in July 2017 to focus on its newer Windows 10 Mobile platform and cloud-based services.