One night in Cali, Stephanie and I were out to see a show, when we noticed something strange. I won't go into details but we saw something that didn't seem right, and my first instinct was to call the non-emergency police services number. It took a lot of trying, but I pretty quickly got on the phone with a dispatcher and rattled off the details of what we'd seen. While I was still on the line, still answering questions about specifics, two cop cars zipped around the corner, speeding off in the direction we'd just come from. In a matter of minutes I got a call back from the dispatcher thanking us for calling it in. I'm guessing there was in fact a crime in progress, and thanks to the accessible communication afforded by cell phones, we were able to get the word to the right people in a very short time. It's my hope that we saved someone from frustration and violation felt by someone who suffers a crime without finding the perpetrator.
On an even more serious note, It's this kind of thing which encourages me not to worry about the prospect of governmental missuse of technology. As lines of communication are shortened, the people's power to associate, work together and aggregate information increases at a level comparable to the convenience afforded the government, perhaps in some cases more so, as the people are not so easily tied down by governmental bureacracy. This convenience helps keep the balance of power somewhat level, and guards against minor tyrannies.