New York Police Departments Needs to Replace 36,000 Windows Phones

Tina Moore, reporting for The New York Post:

The NYPD has to scrap the 36,000 smartphones it gave cops over the past two years because they’re already obsolete and can’t be upgraded, The Post has learned.

The city bought Microsoft-based Nokia smartphones as part of a $160 million NYPD Mobility Initiative that Mayor Bill de Blasio touted as “a huge step into the 21st century.”

But just months after the last phone was handed out, officials plan to begin replacing them all with brand-new iPhones by the end of the year, sources said.[…]

Law enforcement sources blamed the boondoggle on NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology Jessica Tisch, with one saying, “She drove the whole process.”

“Nobody purchases 36,000 phones based on the judgment of one person,” a source said.

“I don’t care if you’re Jesus Fucking Christ, you get a panel of experts.”

Really does seem baffling that they’d invest so heavily in Windows Phone in 2014, long after it was clear that the platform was dying.

★ Monday, 28 August 2017