Logs of calls get backup in the cloud

SOMETHING COPS need with them at all times when they’re on the beat will soon be in the cloud.

The NYPD plans to digitize an officer’s memo book — the daily log where cops detail the 911 calls they respond to and the actions they took during their shifts.

Once the department finishes its rollout of new iPhones, it will be putting the final touches on the voice-activated app, where cops will be able to dictate their activities to their smartphones.

The memo books will also be linked to the 911 app, so the department will have more information about crimes the officer responds to.

The NYPD tested the new memo books with a pilot program in the 25th Precinct on the Windowsbased Nokia phones, but the finished product is still several months off.

“We are enhancing the app based on the information we received on the pilot,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Information and Technology Jessica Tisch.

“Hopefully, with the iPhone platform we will do another pilot program . . . using housing, transit and patrol officers to see if it works.”

The current memo books are handwritten notepads. Cops need to have them at all times so a supervisor can review and sign, or “scratch,” the book to make sure cops are keeping up with their daily activities.

There are also legal considerations: Memo books can be used as evidence in criminal and departmental trials as an official overview of the officer’s activities.

The memo app will be more detailed — and easier to read.

Supervisors can also sign them with their finger — but cops won’t be able to use the app until Commissioner James O’Neill is satisfied with it, Tisch said.

“The memo book is such a fundamental part of what our officers do day-to-day and how they memorialize what they’re doing,” she said. “We can’t put out a half-baked app. . . . This one needs to be ready for prime time before we roll it out,” she said.

The memo app, much like most of the NYPD apps, is designed by police officers — so many of the day-to-day considerations are already included, said Inspector Anthony Tasso, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Strategic Technology Division.

“When they build these apps, they are putting in their experiences,” he said. “But even with that, there are just certain things that you just don’t know until you put them in the hands of the people that are using them in everyday situations on the street.”