cameras

[Nicholas MacGillivray]

good morning everyone, recently our IT dept has disabled all of the USB outlets on our computers, has anyone else had to deal with this before? specifically cameras, we were told we’re not allowed to use our cameras for investigations or inspections now because of this. we are to use our phones for all pictures. if you have had to deal with this issue, what was your work around? TIA

[John Wilson]

Wow. Just Wow. Let’s see, how many ways can we poke a hole in what they are suggesting?

1. OFM says “Never use your phone for inspections/investigations. If the case goes to court, you loose your phone and everything on it.”

2. Even if we were to use our phone, how the !@#$ do they expect us to transfer 100+ high quality photos without a cable? Spend 3 days to email them one by one?

3. How do you load a file that’s too big to email? The way our system is set up, I can’t even email myself ONE photo at full size/resolution – I have to shrink them all.

4. How many courses have we taken part in that we are given a file by USB?

5. Is IT willing to risk a $1500 phone on a site rather than a $500 camera?

6. While phone cameras have been getting better, a real camera still wins out every time. Ever seen OFM Inspector/Investigator using a phone? Nope. Always a real camera. Same goes for Police Arson Investigators.

And those are just off the top of my head. I don’t see you needing a work-around, IT needs a reality check.

 

 

 

[Roel Bus]

Jon has already hit all the nails (and I second the “Wow!”), but I wanted to respond anyway. Our City has threatened to do the same thing, but that is now a few years ago. I have not heard whether this is still happening or not. We were also told to email photos, which is a pain for a few inspection photos, let alone the dozens of investigation photos.

With the focus primarily on security, IT departments can really make life difficult. In our City, attachments are archived way too soon, anything that is sent in a .zip file is intercepted, etc.

I think this is a topic for senior management, where the Chief may use some ‘common sense’ influence.

Having said all that, depending on what phone you’re using. If it’s an iphone like we have, you can use (or create) your iCloud account. You can sign into iCloud on a browser, and move photos that way. This is also less ideal than USB or card readers, but slightly better than emailing photos…

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