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The introduction of the iPhone, and with it the smartphone revolution in 2007, has been both a boon and a bane for law enforcement. While apps and constant connectivity have enhanced police officers' productivity, the legal landscape surrounding society's use of these devices continues to evolve. The resulting uncertainty occasionally leads to makeshift policies, undesirable press coverage, and lengthy court battles. As the law in this domain solidifies, departments must be quick to recognize appropriate tactics and quickly adopt effective policies. A more pronounced area of smartphone jurisprudence centers around citizens recording on-duty police officers, which is now legal in every jurisdiction of the United States. Nevertheless, misunderstandings about two-party consent laws and wiretap statutes have resulted in a substantial number of improper arrests and detentions in recent years. As a result, departments have not only been responsible for more than $1 million in related settlements over the past three years, but have also faced heavy scrutiny by the public and in the media for these events. Through proactive training, departments have an opportunity to stop the bleeding of public trust and shape perception of law enforcement for the better.

Allan Friedman, Austen Mack-Crane and Ross Hammond say they developed a preliminary model to look at the long-term consequences of data theft on diverse economic sectors. Their approach depends on treating cyber theft not as a problem of stolen assets worth an intrinsic value, but as one of diminished future growth. When so framed, the effect that stolen data has on companies within a sector--the ones the preliminary model investigates are the chemical, pharmaceutical, financial, consumer mobile phone and semi-conductor industry--depends on what type of data is stolen and the competitive nature of those sectors.

The Barnstable Police Department recently received a $126,121 grant from the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to train and update training for 82 telecommunicators, including dispatchers, and 10 new police officers in emergency medical dispatch. Everyone currently assigned to the communications desk has had the training, Sweeney said.