Periscope has been in the media for mostly wrong doings on behalf of the user. For those who are unaware, Periscope is an application owned by Twitter which is able to record and live stream video based content. As of late, Periscope has been used to capture and showcase pay-per-view events like boxing matches to live streaming premium broadcast shows like HBO’s Game of Thrones. However, India’s Bangalore police force has an idea to make use of the Periscope application. If everything goes according to plan, Bangalore citizens will turn into surveillance cameras.
Bangalore is a city within India that has a pretty tech savvy police force. Already, the Police Commissioner MN Reddi has established social media in general as a source for news and alerts with its cities citizens. Though Reddi would like to further use social media in new ways, essentially adapting how the police task force takes on along with sending out information instantly at any given moment. With Twitter acquiring Periscope, the application feature may prove to be a worthy tool in helping out citizens in need. Reddi announced that Periscope is ideal for the police force to use especially when releasing out press conferences as not only will citizens be able to watch them on their handset instantly but also have the ability to interact with the conference by asking questions and making comments.
Though there is a bigger plan unveiled for the Bangalore citizens. Not only will Periscope be your source for live press conferences for time sensitive matters but also your key to help clean up the city. Because Bangalore is a city with a vast majority of citizens owning smartphones, the Periscope application could be used to live stream crime as it’s happening. This will have a few benefits as the citizens are able to help their city stay crime free but also show the police force exactly where the crime is taking place along with revealing the suspects. It would certainly be interesting to see how well Periscope will work with the police force and if this will have a domino effect with other cities around the world.