Police officer queries staff tracking app

A FRONTLINE police officer has raised concerns about being constantly tracked by a new app to monitor the location of staff, now being trialled in the South.

Writing in an anonymous column in the Police Association magazine Police News, the officer took issue with their movements being constantly tracked once the app was introduced nationwide.

‘‘Meanwhile, our comrades in Southland have been trialling a new app that keeps tabs on staff while they are at work,’’ they wrote.

‘‘I’m not sure how I feel about being tracked every minute of my shift.

‘‘It’s being sold to us as a ‘safety’ device that can be turned on and off, but chat around the morning tea table indicates the jury is still out.

‘‘Who’s watching who doing what?

‘‘I guess we’ll find out.’’

A police spokeswoman confirmed yesterday the app was being trialled in the Southern district.

Once turned on, it provided location updates that could be viewed from a web application.

Police had sought feedback during the trial in the Southern district, the spokeswoman said.

‘‘Constabulary staff found the app easy to use.

‘‘The biggest impact to staff was a drain on the battery.’’

However, police had received questions on how the data gathered would be used, she said.

Called Deployment and Safety (DaS), it was created by Christchurch app developer Smudge, which had previously collaborated with police in developing its Family Harm app.

Responding to the concerns raised by the police officer, the spokeswoman said the app’s development had been ‘‘prompted by a growing need to monitor officer safety and to respond to their location accurately’’.

‘‘The application will provide location updates to inform safety and deployment.

‘‘It is not the intention to track staff every minute of their shift, and we don’t have the resources to do this.’’

Police Association president Chris Cahill said as long as the app was used solely to ensure the safety of officers rather than monitor their performance, he did not have a problem with it.

‘‘We would support it being used as a safety tool, not as a tool to monitor how long they take to do a job. That becomes too Big Brotherish.’’