Lancashire Police is streaming daily briefings into people’s homes with a new voice activated app.
The project was thought up by PC Rob Flanagan, the force’s innovations manager, who’s been working with developers from Amazon to make it happen.
Alexa users sign up to receive hourly news updates, and they can also get pictures of wanted and missing people sent to their smart device.
“As a police force we are always looking at ways to engage with our communities,” explained Flanagan.
“Alexa works alongside traditional policing methods to inform the public about the important issues in their neighbourhoods. Voice activated searches now account for 10 per cent of online searches and are expected to rise to 50 per cent by 2020.
“We want to be at the forefront of this new technology to make it easier for the public to access the information they want to know.”
Lancashire Constabulary is the first police force in the UK to utilise smart speaker technology to engage with the community.
You can sign up to the service here.
