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Someone's Shooting At Me! Where's The ALT Key?!?
from the whooops dept
Remember that "new" government SAP system that made people go through fifteen steps to save a document? Well, at least that was just a nuisance, but didn't put anyone's life at risk. Police in San Jose, California are complaining about their new police car computers that require too many steps to "call for assistance" in an emergency -- among other problems. The basic issue seems to be that San Jose went with off-the-shelf Windows-based tools (yes, it goes without saying that it crashed, big time), and no one bothered to actually ask the cops who would be using the system how they used their existing systems, and whether or not the design made sense. As for the "call for assistance" issue, originally it was easy -- too easy. Apparently, too many people were calling in with false alarms for assistance, so they made it more difficult. That's just dandy until you're the cop who needs assistance now and don't want to go hunting for the "alt" key. Next thing you know, they'll join with the cops in Philly complaining about adware in the cruisers.
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Too many false alarms
Considering that cops have a job in which they might actually die while performing their normal duties, maybe the better approach would have been to forgive the false alarms. Better an annoyed dispatcher than a dead colleague.
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Re: Too many false alarms
I've read that statistically speaking, convience store clerks are more likely to be killed on the job.
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