NYPD: Gun, Check. Cuffs, Check. iPod, Check.

Apparently seeking to emulate these spoiled U.K. bureaucrats,

The New York Police Department is handing out iPods to academy recruits for the first time to allow them to listen to and watch coursework on the subway. The iPods are "fully loaded" with subject matter including criminal procedure, New York State Penal Law, warrants, ethics and community policing, the department said on Monday.

Outfitting recruits with gadgets instead of books comes in handy because many students take public transportation to class. "Now a recruit can watch a class on 'search and seizure' while going home on the subway," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. The current academy class includes 947 recruits and is scheduled for graduation on December 27.

I'm all for cops smartening up, and heaven knows the NYPD can use a few new members who actually studied the force's own ethics rules. But c'mon — if books are now truly too cumbersome and inconvenient as a study tool, the content loaded onto this mountain of iPods could also have been made available on DVD, or streamed over the Internet — for pennies on the dollar. It's a safe bet that the NYPD is not providing its recruits with the latest in DVD players and TV screens for the home, nor with free home PCs. So why hand out a quarter million dollars' worth of iPods?

Comments

[smurfy]

"a recruit can watch a class...while going home on the subway"

I always thought you were supposed to be watching your ass while riding on a new york subway.