Cops on Crack(berries)

By Jocelyn Geboy in News on Oct 16, 2006 8:50PM

Just about everyone who has caught up with technology is familar with the catch-all, on-the-go, all-purpose devices all the cool kids have -- the Treo, the Palm Pilot (does anyone use those anymore?), the BlackBerry. You've been victim to the colleague or friend who constantly is getting (and answering) text messages, e-mails, phone calls throughout a meal. And as much as we love the pretty shiny things that connect us to the Internet at any time of day or night, at some point we think you have to know when to put the thing down.

For instance, perhaps if you were riding a Segway. According to the Sun-Times, the Chicago Police Department is "field-testing 17 BlackBerries with officers assigned to bike and Segway patrols, narcotics and Area One gun teams." The idea is to have the officers have the police database at their fingertips without having to go back to their squad cars or call information in. That way, they could run plates or people's identification and make better decisions on the go.

The ultimate goal is to get the handy-dandy devices in the hands of every officer, but they're starting by ordering 100 more by the end of the month. We're okay with the idea in theory, but we see an awful lot of cops on cell phones the way it is. Not to mention we always hate when we hear that hard-working cops aren't being paid enough or might not get pensions; to outfit every officer with a BlackBerry will have an estimated cost of $2.7 million. Yipes.

And what exactly is the job/beat of a Segway patrolperson?

Image via ridiculopathy.com.