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There are so many work-related uses for your Android phone, iPhone or tablets these days, like apps that help you do your job better and more efficiently. Even apps allowing incident commanders to track, communicate, better manage and even document any size incident can work with the phone you carry on your belt or in your pocket. They can save your jurisdiction plenty of cash and keep you safer.
The problem is phone manufacturers offer few if any affordable phones or tablets capable of withstanding the rigors of police work. And I can’t think of a single “ruggedized” model offering a fraction of the capabilities of even the now-dated iPhone 4S I carry with me daily.
Our Needs
We don’t expect our phones to take a bullet for us, but we need a level of ruggedness that’s sensible. The sheer size of a case that would protect your device from being run over by a car, struck by a bullet, survive temperatures -50 to +130 degrees and dunks in 100′ of water just isn’t realistic. They could be made with those features, but they’d weigh 10 pounds and add three times the volume.
We need protective cases for an average to crappy day in the patrol car. Realistically, the case should survive a 6′ drop or being flung across the cruiser’s seats during a pursuit and weather a good dousing of a grande-mocha-frappa-salted-caramel-two-extra-shots latte — or in my case, a large strong black coffee.
LifeProof
The LifeProof fre for iPhone 5 (they also make cases for iPhone 4/4S) is the lightest and slimmest of the cases we tried, weighing 1.5 ounces (without the belt clip attached) with dimensions of 2.64×5.41x.48″. The case is waterproof for 30 minutes in about 6.5′ of water, but I’ve got to be honest, none of us here have been brave enough to sacrifice our personal phone to test this claim from any of the makers. We’re satisfied knowing the cases will protect our phones from the average rainstorm or accidental drop on a puddle. The case performs as advertised in keeping out dust, gunk and other grunge you’re likely to come across. LifeProof says the fre will withstand occasional drops from a maximum height of 6.6′ and our phones were no worse for the wear after several drop tests.
A word of caution with this case: there are two belt clips included in the package, one for a standard size belt and the other for a thicker/wider belt such as your gun belt. Read the instructions and believe them! Once you’ve attached a clip to the case, you’re very apt to break the attachment point if you decide you don’t like that particular clip size. So, I recommend you see which clip will give you the most uses before you just slap one on. MSRP is about $80 and LifeProof offers a wide range of color options.
By Dave Douglas
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