Baltimore’s police department will become one of the first agencies in the nation to issue every patrol officer a BlackBerry that allows for instant warrant checks, city officials said Wednesday.
The city’s Board of Estimates approved using $5.3 million in federal stimulus money for the police department, including $3.5 million to buy 2,000 of the BlackBerries, known as “Pocket Cops.”
The devices allow officers to run warrants, check vehicle registrations, and pull up criminal histories and suspect photos. Officers who use them can be more efficient and spend more time outside of their cars, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said.
“In the last 15 years in domestic law enforcement, we’ve trained cops around their vehicle. We’ve made their vehicle their mobile office. Except that now, they don’t leave the office,” Bealefeld said. “This Pocket Cop will help move them away from that car and break that tether.”
Bealefeld has urged his officers to repair relationships with residents of the city’s poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods, who are often reluctant to cooperate with police. Baltimore has an entrenched illegal drug trade and remains one of the nation’s most violent big cities despite a 20-year low in homicides last year.
The department has been using more than 100 of the devices in a pilot program in the city’s western district and in specialized units. The 2,000 additional devices should be enough to equip every regular patrol officer with one, police said. There are more than 3,000 officers in the department.
Early reviews for the devices have been positive. Officers using Pocket Cops made twice as many arrests over a 3-month period than those equipped with radios or laptops, according to statistics provided by the department. They also hauled in more offenders on outstanding warrants.
The ability to pull up photos of wanted individuals has been particularly useful, said…