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10 best police apps for Android to help out law enforcement
In addition, a lot of police apps have very old UIs and not a ton of downloads so it’s difficult to recommend. Such examples include Police Notes and Pocket Brainbook. Of course, your department might have an app for you and that’ll probably cover several apps on the list.
Early Bird Alarm Clock
Price: Free / $2.99
Police officers work crazy hours and shifts can change without a ton of notice. A good alarm clock app can help with those first few days on a newer shift. The app has a bunch of neat little tricks to help wake you up. For instance, it has alternate alarms so you don’t get used to a single alarm. Additionally, you can set multiple alarms, set little puzzles to force you to wake up to turn the alarm off, and there’s a voice option to tell you the time when the alarm goes off. The price tag is cheap and it’s effective for most people.
First Aid
Price: Free
First Aid by The American Red Cross is an excellent app for law enforcement officials. It has a variety of first aid tactics, tips, tricks, and tutorials. The tutorials are step-by-step guides. Since the police answer so many different types of emergencies and get first aid training already. However, having an app as a refresher is never a bad idea. The American Red Cross also has apps for hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, pet first aid, and even one to help understand veteran stuff. These valuable resources are all free and can help keep a police officer up to date in case of unusual emergencies.
Google Translate
Price: Free
Google Translate is a powerful resource for police officers. It does basic stuff for travelers such as translating across dozens of languages and you can even use the camera to translate signs, menus, and some stuff like that. However, for police officers, the real prize feature is the ability to translate things live. There is a chance for police officers to need to talk to someone who doesn’t speak English. The app is capable of translating talking in real time. Additionally, you can talk into the app and it’ll translate it for them. The usefulness of such a feature speaks for itself.
GUNTRACK
Price: Free / $4.99
GUNTRACK is a firearm tracking app. Many police officers carry extra weapons or own personal firearms. This app helps you keep track all of them. It can keep receipts, training records, range logs, ammo, accessories, and basically everything else. The information is stored in the cloud for future recall on any device. This kind of stuff could be useful for a variety of reasons and it’s a good idea for a police officer to keep excellent records about this stuff. The cloud information is 256-bit encrypted for privacy and security. The free version acts more as a trial. You’ll need the premium version to use all of the features.
NoteCam
Price: Free / $4.99
NoteCam is a potentially useful app. It takes photos like any other camera app. However, this one lets you add notes to each photograph that become part of the image itself. It could be potentially useful for photographing relevant things and adding notes about why its relevant or adding additional details. The photo quality isn’t going to be as good as the stock camera app on your phone, but it’s serviceable enough. The app can also add in the location, estimated distance, and the time the photo was taken. All of those things could be potentially useful.
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Police Officer Exam Study
Price: Free
Police Officer Exam Study is one of the few decent study aids for future police officers. It’s basically a study aid for the police exam. You open the app, check out the info, and try to learn it. Additionally, the app has things like physical fitness standards so you know what to strive for. This won’t pass the test for you, obviously, nor is it going to help you cheat your way in. However, it gives you a good idea of the knowledge you need to have and other things you need to pass. It’s a good study aid.
Posted
Price: $0.99
Posted is a unique app. It’s a directory of establishments that both allow and prohibit concealed carry weapons on their premises. A lot of police officers like to carry off the clock, but even they must follow these types of rules. Apps like this helps them do it. The app boasts 19,000 anti-gun establishments and over 15,000 pro-gun establishments. Thus, you can be sure you’re not accidentally breaking the law by going into the wrong establishment with a weapon. The app is crowd sourced as well so you can add more establishments in your area to help other people with it. The app runs for a single $0.99 charge at the time of this writing.
Scanner 911
Price: Free (with ads)
Scanner 911 is one of two competent police scanner apps. It boasts a large collection of police, EMS, airport, and fire scanners. You can also sort by location, distance away from you, and by city. This is potentially useful in a variety of scenarios or just as a hobby. The app streams the scanners over the phone speakers in nearly real-time so you get up to the second updates. Police officers obviously have these things in their cards. However, this is a good option for mobile phones.
Scanner Radio
Price: Free / $2.99
Scanner Radio fills the same void as Scanner 911 and has a lot of the same benefits. It boasts over 7,000 scanners from across the country for EMS, fire, police, airports, and even marine radios. The app streams these in nearly real-time for quick updates as you listen. Additionally, you can have the app notify you if more than 3,500 listeners tune into a single channel because that usually indicates that something serious is happening. Some other features includes Android Auto support for your car, a directory you can browse, and a decent looking UI. The pro version costs $2.99 and removes advertising.
Smart Tools
Price: $2.99
Smart Tools is an older Android app but it’s useful nevertheless. It features six sets of super basic tools you can use for whatever is needed. They include a level using your phone’s accelerometer, functions for angle and slope, a compass, a sound level meter, a unit converter, and some other stuff. We can’t imagine that these things would be helpful on a day-to-day basis, but it’s kind of like a Swiss Army Knife of apps, it’s there in case you need it. The app goes for a single $2.99 purchase and still gets updates from developers despite its old age.
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If we missed any great police apps for Android, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists!