It was only a few months ago when it sounded like every government office was trying to cut down on BlackBerry expenditures. Even this past week the Chief Financial Officer in Tallahassee disconnected 116 government issued BlackBerrys to cut costs.
I took it as a sign that things have turned around when I heard from DavidB that all of Baltimore’s Police force will be getting BlackBerrys with Pocket Cop. Officers can use the device to access information about felons, missing persons, gangs, terrorists and guns. As a cost comparison it makes tons of sense since Pocket Cop is about $1,700 compared to $8,000 for a laptop. It also lets them always carry it around instead of leaving it in the car.
The city is also going to use it to track officers with the built in GPS which would be a cooler way for officers to report their location. They have already proven that officers with Pocket Cop are twice as efficient with arrests and warrants.
Sounds good to me! No word on which devices they will be giving out but I am just wondering how much Brick Breaker is getting used… 
You never know this could also help officers catch perv’s like this one in Australia caught using his BlackBerry to take pictures up women’s skirts on the escalator. Now I am starting to understand why RIM forces the camera to make noise.
