Watch out, Axon: Samsung says its foldable phone is ‘ideal for busy police officers’ for a variety of reasons.
Share this story
See our ethics statement.
Samsung’s advertising for its Galaxy Z Flip series typically revolves around Gen Z photo shoots and showing off specific features like interpreter mode. But today, the company has taken quite a turn by highlighting the foldable phone’s use as… a policing tool.
In a post on Samsung’s newsroom titled “Samsung Technology Is Helping Police Authorities Protect the Public’s Safety,” we learn that two police departments in Missouri participated in a pilot program that led them to integrate the Z Flip into their daily operations. “This included their use as a body-worn camera to promote transparency, marking the first time that police have used a foldable device in this way,” the article says. Eventually, two other departments joined in.
There are some differences between consumer Z Flip devices and those that the police have been using. Samsung worked with Visual Labs, “a leading body camera solution provider,” to customize the phones for law enforcement. This included “remapping the external volume button to start the 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 dashcam, whenever a vehicle’s emergency lights are activated. Video footage can immediately be uploaded to the cloud using Visual Labs’ software.
Here are other direct quotes from Samsung’s blog post:
- “The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series’ works well as a body camera due to its compact and foldable form factor, allowing for easy attachment to police uniforms and outer carriers.”
- “In their use as body-worn cameras, Galaxy Z Flip devices can help improve evidence gathering and transparency by clearly documenting details of arrests and other interactions.”
- “The Galaxy Z Flip additionally functions as a digital camera needed for taking pictures of crime scene evidence; an audio recorder for witness interviews; and a personnel locator for tracking an officer’s location through GPS.”
You don’t often see smartphone makers hyping their products for this purpose.
Samsung says “the solutions are now being extended to 25 metro police departments across five states, furthering Samsung’s commitment to bringing tools that can boost success for even more police authorities in the US.” As for Visual Labs, it’s got a partnership with T-Mobile for providing Android smartphone bodycams to law enforcement.
Axon dominates the body-worn camera market in the United States, followed by Motorola and other companies. The cameras have been positioned as an important tool for accountability and transparency, though as ProPublica and The New York Times reported last year, that promise is often undermined by local policies that can slow or outright prevent the release of footage.
