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New Zealand Police will soon be fighting crime — with iPhones and iPads? The countries 6000 frontline officers will receive a new iPhone to... New Zealand Police To Receive 9,900 iPhones, iPads

New Zealand Police will soon be fighting crime — with iPhones and iPads? The countries 6000 frontline officers will receive a new iPhone to carry in the field and 3900 officers are set to receive an iPad for their cruisers.

Government officials have approved the plan which was finalized with wireless carrier Vodafone. The deal is worth a whopping $159 million over ten years when wireless charges are included.

NZ Police chief information officer Stephen Crombie notes that the iPhone/iPad deal was not a spur of the moment decision. Instead, New Zealand police officers conducted an 11-month trial of the iPhone and iPad devices to determine the efficacy of such an undertaking.

New Zealand Police To Receive 9,900 iPhones, iPads

According to Crombie:

“Based on frontline officer feedback from the trial (over 100 staff in four districts trialled smartphones, laptops and tablets over an 11-month period) the preferred devices are the iPhone as smartphone and iPad for the tablet. The approach used to develop the applications means Police can move to other devices with relative ease as technology changes.”

Apple has been making huge inroads with various large operations. Recently Apple took away Home Depot management phone contracts from BlackBerry and replaced them with iPhone 5 smartphones. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner also recently gifted 3,500 32GB iPad mini tablets to his employees.

YouSentIt CEO Brand Garlinghouse also gave all of his employees an Apple iPad mini for Christmas.

Enterprise customers have long been considered big competition for wireless carrier. Oftentimes a business user who also carries a personal phone will choose to stay loyal to the brand. With millions of business customers carrying more than one smartphone or tablet the need to secure corporate business is ever increasing.

Do you think spending $159 million with Apple over 10 years was a smart move for the New Zealand Police department?

[Image via TwitterCounter]