Technologies Used by Police Forces - Research Paper Example

Technologies used by police forces Police have always had the responsibility to maintain order, control crime, as well asto provide an array of complicated services to the community. On many occasions, they have gone extra miles to fight crime, control rioters, violent offenders, and investigate crimes among many others. Over the years, the police workload has been increasing significantly, the government has been on toes to provide tools, and equipments that can keep pace with the workload the police have. For an effective job, the police department has frequently looked towards technology so that they can improve their effectiveness while on the line of duty. In order to improve the security as well as reducing police workload at the same time, new technological innovations have come up that are capable of improving the performance of the police. These technologies have expanded considerably and added reinforcement to frontline officers. According to statistics from the 2007 survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the local police departments use various technologies for different law enforcement processes. In turn, these technologies have reduced the workload of police and effort used in day-to-day activities. For instance, the criminal investigation uses 60% of technology, crime mapping and analysis (100%), dispatch (49%), information sharing (50%), and record management (79%). In addition, 90% of departments serving over 250,000 people use fingerprinting technology and two-thirds also reported to be regularly utilizing video cameras for speed, CCTV, and those in patrol cars (Roberts). The following are a range of the technologies brought to the police department over the years with the main aim of reducing workload and increasing work efficiency. Forensic and Fingerprinting Technology The emergence of fingerprinting and crime laboratories between 1900 and 1920 has by far increased the capacity for the police to solve crimes and incarcerate the guilty offenders. Later in the years, this is what emerged to be the core of forensics (McElreath et al. 299). The driving force for the introduction of forensics was to foresee justice prevail because before, the judicial proceedings were just based on evidence coming from victim statements and coerced confessions. Forensics was the better option after jurists and criminologists were convinced that it had standards of neutrality and objectivity. In addition, forensics could add fairness and precision to investigations as a result scientists and doctors had a partnership with the police so that they could integrate solving crimes and science (McElreath et al., 300). Despite forensic taking charge a bit slowly, most police departments in the US began appreciating the results it brought before the prosecutors during judicial proceedings. In 1916, the Berkeley Police Department in California was the first station to install a scientific laboratory for investigations (McElreath et al. 300). Through such remarkable technology, many suspects were guilty and convicted without much time wasted as well as helping suspects who were in jail wrongfully to go free because they were innocent. Forensics involves various categories like DNA analysis and ballistics. It has reduced the police workload in dealing with witnesses whose accounts may not be very accurate to push for prosecution. With forensic scientists involved, they can provide an insight based on the evidenced collected at crime scenes, and they can help in deciding cases. For instance, they can tell whose DNA samples was collected from victims or crime scenes, type of gun that fired a specific round, and opinions as an expertise (McElreath et al. 303). Fingerprinting technology also became helpful in identifying suspects who may have touched physical evidence in crime scenes. Over the years, the fingerprinting technology is in a form of a computerized system such that an officer can search for the prints with the help of computer programs since it became hectic and time-consuming. For instance, it took a San Francisco detective six years during his free time to search fingerprint files manually by hand. In contrast, the computerized system can manage to locate a match within few minutes of search. A good example is the magic wand developed by Alaska Crime Laboratory, which could retrieve, recognize suspects by using fingerprints collected from crime scenes and send the data to the headquarter database. This technology is important since it could recognize suspects in question as well as minimizing the time forensic detective would spend examining the crime scene (Ross 185). Detection and Surveillance Surveillance and detection are important components in policing and maintain order. Detection can include inspecting illicit things while surveillance can be watching activities and movement with the aim of looking for unlawful activities. There are technologies that can be vital in helping these activities. The use of video surveillance has rapidly increased has increased rapidly over the years among the law enforcers. Most commonly used for this technology are the closed circuit television (CCTV) and surveillance and security cameras (Dempsey 79). Surveillance by video has been very successful in preventing and reducing crimes as well as helping in prosecuting evidence as it acts as evidence through its recordings. They are situational awareness and effective such that when an incident occurs, personnel on duty can respond immediately. Through detection and surveillance, officers have managed to protect public and comrades from various situations by keeping their areas of life safe. This technology has enabled to reduce the police workload by reducing the number of patrolling units since the cameras are the police’s watchdogs. The police also have thermal imaging cameras, which can produce images in thermal portions of electromagnetic spectrum. This is critical in finding fleeing fugitive or any hidden target whichever place it is in few minutes. This technology is very important since it has reduced the time an officer can search for a target and in life or death situation, it will help save a life due to its efficiency. Introduction of Patrol Cars and Helicopters Back in the days, officers mostly used to patrol on foot. This was hectic and tedious since the officers could not cover a large area of patrol and in situations of emergency and it took them a while to respond. The change came about when the government issued the police officers with patrol cars. This made things more efficient and reliable in cases of emergencies and patrols. Officers also could manage patrolling a large area and in cases where they have made arrests it was much easier to transport the offenders to the station for booking. At times, suspects can be in evading the police using any means of transport, here the patrol cars and helicopters come in handy, as they will help in pursuit. Helicopters also can capture aerial images of suspects for recognition as well as communicating with officers on where the suspects are heading. The police patrol cars in the US are among the most advanced and equipped well technologically. They are fitted with a laptop, license plate reader, multiband radio, automatic vehicle location, non-lethal weapons, and face and fingerprint recognition devices. This makes it easy for the officers to look up to something without contacting the control center for details, which can be time wasting. This has also enabled officers to spend more time on important issues like patrolling their assigned placed through improved reporting capabilities rather than going back to headquarters to make reports. Speed Cameras and For years, technology has been greatly in use for traffic enforcement. Cameras are on roads to capture over speeding vehicles and those that run on red lights. These cameras capture an individual in four different information perspectives, time when the vehicle hit the intersection, time it exited, driver’s photo, and color on the traffic light at the time of driving off (Ross 181). These cameras have been successful in discouraging speeders and red light runners. Therefore, it has helped the police such that they do not have to go and oversee the traffic to ticket the offenders. These cameras also have face and number plate recognition applications such that the police can easily note how many times the offender has outstanding warrants, if the vehicle is legit in terms of owner and insurance cover. This technology has been successful in the police department not just by reducing patrol units but also in recognizing individuals who could be a possible threat to anyone else (Ross 185). Communication and Computer Technology Nowadays, computers in great use by the police for investigations of criminal cases like accessing historical documents, inserting new documents and storing them. Advanced computer technology like analyzing information patterns and hacking systems where need have also been in use and very helpful in intelligence gathering from raw data and solving cases (Greene 242). The use of computer technology has brought the work of police officers to a new level due to its simplicity and accuracy. This had been helpful such that the machines can reach for documents or any important tool faster than when an officer went for it. In addition, computer technology has extended to non-routine efforts for instance dispatch systems aided by computer such that these computer machines have come to be a tool trusted to make strategic plans and decisions. Therefore, law enforcers have the mandated to use every computer technology available at their disposal to protect lives, respond to the crisis, and conduct investigations. Due to the nature of police jobs, one need to handle and process large amounts of information and here is the point computer technology comes in handy (Ellahi & Manarvi 1). Communication in the form of exchanging information using a medium serves a critical role in effective law enforcement. Over the years, the police have relied on communication with the dispatcher in order to get information on specific situation at hand or even in situations when the officer needs backup (Cole, Smith & DeJong 462). Non-lethal Weapons These weapons do not kill nor cause serious injuries to suspects. Development of non-lethal weapon and technologies depict a number one priority for the law enforcement. This came about because of using excessive force that caused injuries to non-violent offenders or those who are escaping (Ross 184). Police always carry with them these weapons and it is what they will use at any time before drawing out their guns and rifles. Such non-lethal weapons include stun gun, which pass a wave of electric current to a suspect hence making him or her calm. The same also applies to pepper spray and in cases of rowdy crowds, the police can use teargas, rubber bullets, foams, nets, and bag projectiles. Over the years, this has been so effective in making arrests without involving much force from the officers. Technology has changed the operations and structure of law enforcement by enabling the relevant authorities to manage a situation efficiently by deploying the relevant resources with much accuracy. Technology has brought about trust and faith between officers and the public. In addition, the growth of smart phones and social network has brought about the transparency of the service provided law enforcement, and the ability for the public to relate to the police easily. Immense developments have come up to police’s use of technology in many different fields of traffic, criminal investigation, intelligence, communication, and surveillance. This technology has also made it easy for the police to make arrests without causing serious injuries to resisting suspects as well as tracking down locations of their targets using the GPS (Dempsey & Forst 513). Compared to past years, nowadays police solve cases with utmost accuracy and efficiency without doing much, and this has been possible because they have made technology part of their force. Conclusion Maintenance of law and order is fundamental in every community of our nation, and it is our responsibility to carry out this mission. These technologies help reduce the workload of the men and women in the forces such that they can manage to focus on other important issues concerning the peace of every citizen. As we have seen that keeping up with technology in law enforcement is very critical and promising for our safety. Most police departments cannot afford the necessary resources to execute this technology where needed so it will be helpful if the government supports them fully for the sake of its citizens. A number of people do not support some technologies under the authority due to fear of spies and in turn lacking their privacy. Contrary, technology has proved to prevent many criminal activities from happening, and it has helped to develop evidence against suspects as well as appealing to other people who were wrongly accused. Through adequate support from the government and public sector, it is no doubt that technology will continue to advance as years pass, and more important tools will come up to help our officers in doing their job effectively. Work Cited Cole, George., Smith, Christopher., & DeJong, Christina. Criminal Justice in America, Cengage Learning, 2015. Print. David J. Roberts, David J. “Technology Is Playing an Expanding Role in Policing,” Technology Talk, The Police Chief 78 (January 2011): 72–73. Dempsey, John S. “Introduction to Private Security,” Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Dempsey, John., & Forst, Linda. “An Introduction to Policing,” Cengage Learning, 2015. Print. Greene, Jack R. “The Encyclopedia of Police Science,” Taylor & Francis, volume 1, 2007. Print McElreath, David., Doss, Daniel., Jensen, Carl., Wigginton, Michael Jr., Kennedy, Ralph., Winter, Kenneth., Mongue, Robert., Bounds, Janice., & Estis-Sumerel, Michelle J. “Introduction to Law Enforcement,” CRS Press, 2013. Print. Ross, Jeffrey I. “Policing Issues: Challenges and Controversies,” Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012. Print. Read More