Up Periscope! A New App with Potential Law Enforcement Uses

Periscope, a mobile app that allows users to live-broadcast video from anywhere in the world at any time, has been hailed by the technology and entertainment industries, citizen broadcasters and even politicians, now Law Enforcement is getting into the act.

What is Periscope?
The app, developed by two friends Kayvon Beykpour and Joseph Bernstein, and was purchased by Twitter in March of 2015 for $100 million . The duo  had the idea in 2013 when trying to decide whether they should visit Taksim Square in Istanbul after reports of riots. They wanted to be able to see what was going on in places in real time, through the eyes of people who were there. According to sources within the first ten days of the release of the iPhone launch the gained over a millions users. After the May release of the Android version, it gained millions more.

So what does it do?
Periscope allows uses to live-stream video from their mobile phones, and can be used in conjunction
with Twitter, enabling other users to see links tweeted in order to view live-streams.

Although it is not the only live-streaming app. Many early attempts have fallen by the wayside, and another similar service called Meerkat, was also launched earlier this year.  However Twitter cut off Meerkat's access to its social media site, when it acquired Periscope.

Periscope offers  users the option to let anyone play back the video stream. Which has some tremendous opportunities for Law Enforcement, Emergency Management Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations, for example:

Australia, @WA_Police

• In Australia, NSW Police used Periscope last week to broadcast a live press conference on then missing Coogee woman Jessica Bialek.
  
  The case was a "perfect opportunity" to try out the new technology, NSW police director of public affairs Strath Gordon said.
  
  "What we've found is that people often engage with our social media pages when they feel they can contribute," Mr Gordon said, adding that police Facebook and Twitter pages tend to see a spike in followers when  prominent people go missing.
  
  "Periscope is just another way of widening that audience and giving people a chance to assist and keep up with the facts."

Bengaluru, India. @blrctypolice

• That scenario might soon be reality thanks to an idea that’s currently being proposed for the Indian city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore). Inspired by the use of Periscope at a recent conference, the city’s police commissioner MN Reddi—who has emerged as a social media star with over 290,000 followers on Twitter—proposed that citizens should report and record crimes using the live-streaming app as part of a new strategy for “community policing.” 

Boca Raton, Florida @bocapolice

In the area of Crisis Communication, the public can get real-time updates and information instead of reading about it in a Facebook Post or Tweet.  

The app is currently available both from the ITunes Store and the Playstore.