Samsung's advertising for its Galaxy Z Flip series typically revolves around Gen Z Photo shoots and showing specific characteristics such as interpreter modeBut today, the company has made a radical change by highlighting the use of the folding phone as a… police tool.
In technology-is-helping-police-authorities-protect-the-publics-safety”>A post on Samsung's newsroom In an article titled “Samsung technology Helps Law Enforcement Protect Public Safety,” we learn that two Missouri police departments participated in a pilot program that saw them integrate the Z Flip into their daily operations. “This included using it as a body camera to promote transparency, marking the first time police have used a foldable device in this way,” the article says. Eventually, two more departments joined in.
There are some differences between the consumer-grade Z Flip devices and those used by police. Samsung worked with Visual Labs, “a leading provider of body camera solutions,” to customize the phones for law enforcement. This included “remapping the external volume button to initiate body camera recordings in urgent situations.” Recordings can also be set to automatically begin when the phone detects a pursuit or, if used with a dash cam, when a vehicle’s emergency lights are activated. Video footage can be immediately uploaded to the cloud using Visual Labs software.
Below are additional direct quotes from Samsung's blog post:
It's not often you see smartphone manufacturers promoting their products with this purpose in mind.
Samsung says that “the solutions are now being rolled out to 25 metropolitan police departments across five states, reinforcing Samsung's commitment to providing tools that can drive success for even more law enforcement agencies across the U.S.” As for Visual Labs, it has a partnership with T-Mobile to provide Android smartphone body cameras to law enforcement.
Axon dominates the body camera market in the United States, followed by Motorola and others. Cameras have positioned themselves as an important tool for accountability and transparency, although as ProPublica and The New York Times reported last yearThat promise is often undermined by local policies that can delay or outright prevent the release of images.
