Advertisements for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip series often revolve around Gen Z photo capture and showcasing specific features like translation mode. But today, the company is making a big shift, emphasizing the foldable phone’s use as a… police tool.
In a Samsung Newsroom post titled “Samsung technology is helping police authorities keep the public safe,” we learned that two police departments in Missouri are participating in a pilot program that has them integrating the Z Flip into into daily operations. “This included using them as body cameras to increase transparency, marking the first time police have used foldable devices in this way,” the article states. Eventually, two other departments joined.
There are some differences between consumer Z Flip devices and the ones police have been using. Samsung has partnered with Visual Labs, “a leading provider of law enforcement recorder solutions,” to customize phones for law enforcement agencies. These include “remapping the external volume buttons to initiate body camera recording in an emergency.” Recording can also be set to start automatically when the phone detects tracking, or if used with a dash cam, whenever the vehicle Starts automatically when the emergency lights are activated. Use Visual Labs’ software to instantly upload video clips to the cloud.
Here are other direct quotes from Samsung’s blog post:
You don’t often see smartphone manufacturers advertising their products for this purpose.
Samsung said, “These solutions have now been expanded to 25 metro police departments in five states, furthering Samsung’s commitment to provide more police agencies in the United States with tools to promote success.” As for Visual Labs, it is established with T-Mobile has entered into a partnership to provide law enforcement with Android smartphone body-worn cameras.
Axon dominates the U.S. body camera market, followed by Motorola and others. These cameras are positioned as important tools for accountability and transparency, although Puplica and New York Times Reports emerged last year that this commitment was often undermined by local policies that could slow down or outright prevent films from being released.
