In big cities across the USA, police resort to Wi-Fi to diminish errors in the tickets they write (from 39 % of tickets issued, to just 1 %) and increase the amount that they collect in fines.

Wi-Fi-enabled handhelds scan the bar code on the car’s registration sticker and the cop prints an electronic version with the mobile printer attached to his/her belt, also via the WiFi connection.

Other applications are being adopted too: to record the demographic data of the drivers stopped for traffic violations, ensuring they are not targeting minorities disproportionately, to send suspect photos over the networks to PDAs, to take fingerprints in the field, and send them for verification, etc.

The major drawback is of course there’s no widespread good connectivity.

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