It might sound like the beginning of a joke, but it's totally true:
Samsung's foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, has found a new career as a police body camera. What started as a small pilot in Missouri about two years ago, became a surprising police trend, and now 25 police departments in 5 states in the United States will adopt the foldable device for its new role. In a post published by the company on its blog, Samsung describes how the Galaxy Z Flip devices, known mainly for their foldable screen, have become part of the work routine of police officers in police departments. Additionally, according to the company, this is the first time a foldable device has been used as a body camera.
Samsung also notes in the blog that beyond being used as body cameras, "the devices are also used by the police as digital cameras for documenting crime scenes, as recording devices for interviews with witnesses, and as a means of locating police officers using GPS."
The Flip devices used in the program were specially adapted to the needs of the police forces in cooperation with the company Visual Labs, which specializes in adapting mobile devices for use as body and vehicle cameras. The changes included, among other things, changing the designation of the volume buttons to activate the camera immediately.
In fact, Samsung is not the first technology company involved in developing products for police forces. Ring, a company owned by Amazon, has supplied smart cameras to the United States police, while other companies have developed facial recognition technologies and drones for police use.