Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
The NYPD Armed Its Officers With 36,000 Crappy Windows Phones & Now They Have To Replace Them
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Aug 28, 2017
Modified Aug 28, 2017
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Courtesy @nycmayorsoffice's flickr
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Aug 28, 2017
Modified Aug 28, 2017
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Over the last two years, the NYPD has handed out 36,000 smartphones to its force as part of an effort to bring the department "into the 21st century," as Mayor de Blasio put it when the initiative was announced in 2014. Unfortunately, the city decided to purchase our cops now-defunct Windows phones, and they'll have to replace all of them. So much for being up to speed on modern technology.
Mayor de Blasio and then-Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced the $160 million NYPD Mobility Initiative in 2014, pledging to gift officers with smartphones and tablets in order to make it easier to provide them with up-to-date information and increased communication capabilities. But for some reason the city decided to invest in the Windows-based Nokia Lumia 830 and Lumia 640 XL phones, and in July Microsoft announced it would no longer support Windows Phone 8.1.
Tech experts are having a pretty good time telling the city, "I told you so." 99 percent of smartphone users stick with iOS and Android phones—and for good reason.
Windows phones have been buggy and under-supported for years, and the NYPD stocking its force with them was like changing all the police cruisers to AMC Gremlins. It would have made far more sense for the NYPD to invest in phones with staying power. As tech site CNET said in October, “You read that right. Life and death situations rely on outdated phones running Microsoft’s Windows Phone software."
According to the New York Post, the decision to pick an abacus of a cell phone was all on NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology Jessica Tisch. Apparently Tisch insisted on the phones because the NYPD was using Microsoft software elsewhere, but didn't bother consulting with other IT experts before mandating the force make her desired purchase. As Bratton told reporters, of Tisch, “She’s a terror if she doesn’t get her way, so I usually let her get her way, so she’s certainly getting her way with this technology." Wonderful.
Meanwhile, the NYPD officers said the Windows phones were useful because cops were able to receive text messages and search law enforcement databases, and boy will they be impressed when they see an iPhone for the first time.
The NYPD has not yet responded to request for comment.
Tagged
cell phones
nypd
phones
windows
Rebecca Fishbein
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .