The New York City Police Department is about to distribute 41,000 mobile devices under a new $160 million program known as the NYPD Mobility Initiative. Financed by criminal asset funds, the project will equip New York’s finest with 35,000 mobile devices and 6,000 ruggedized tablets will be added to patrol vehicles.

Crimefighting? Maybe there’s an app for that. By the end of the year, the NYPD will be getting 6,000 Panasonic FZ-G1 Toughpad tablets — one for every squad car — as well as up to 41,000 smart phones that will be handed out to cops departmentwide, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Thursday. “Christmas has come early for the NYPD and this city,” Bratton said in announcing the high-tech acquisition at the NYPD’s Security Command Center in lower Manhattan. “I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time. We’ve been nibbling at the edges.