Suffolk County Police Department has announced well over a month ago that they will be installing new technology into their police cars. Twenty-five police cars will have portable tablets installed into them which will replace the laptops that officers use nowadays. The portable tablets will make it easier to file a case and will eliminate the officers going back to their car which could avoid police chases and other unsupervised activities. The portable tablets will allow the officers to make calls for service and tech pictures using 21st century technology. In the coming year, a total of four-hundred and fifty police cars will have the new technology installed into them by 2019. The updates will cost a hefty $2,500 dollars for just four-hundred cars. For the next three years, the updates will cost $2.25 million dollars.

This new technology could be very useful for cops in the future, but some may find it very invasive and a waste of money. The new technology could make reporting a case and filing a report more efficient. Robert Trotta, local legislator and former Suffolk officer said, “I like to have a cop’s hands empty when he’s walking up to a house.” Referring to the officers carrying around a portable tablet. He follows up his statement with, “I hope there’s training to let the cops know their lives are more important than a tablet.” Stuart Cameron, the Chief of Department thinks otherwise. Cameron said, “I think it has an opposite effect; I think it will actually improve office safety. The’ll have access to information about prior conduct of people, whether they’ve been violent in the past, whether they have warrants much more rapidly so they can take an appropriate security posture.” As you can tell, some approve of the updates and some do not. Only time can tell what future police tech will hold for the future of our police department.