High-Tech Policing

High-Tech Policing

Technology has revolutionized the policing sector, and it has the potential of bringing more positive changes to the police sector in the near future. Use of advanced technology has reduced the crime rate by a large percentage because the crime suspects can be easily traced through the use of the new technology. Just a few years ago there was nothing like a computer in police stations, and police officers could not easily track the crime suspects. Now what seemed to be impossible in the past is possible with technology ranging from drones in the sky to use of microcomputers in the police stations. High-tech policing is a very useful tool in the 21st century that can protect our police officers and prevent crimes from happening by using advanced technologies such as body cameras, license plate readers, and social media.

Use of body camera by the police has been found useful in monitoring all the details of a crime scene. Body cameras have been proposed in many countries as a way of reducing police assaults against the public. The police officers wear body cameras before they undertake any operation. The body cameras are then used to record a video of all what happened during the encounter. The body camera footage provides critical evidence for internal and external investigations and offers the public a detailed account of all what took place during the encounter. Also, the use of body cameras has been found useful in monitoring the police officers conduct. As a result of the use of body cameras, police officers who are using excessive force on the suspects are easily traced. A research was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of body cameras in reducing police use of force and assault against officers (Ariel, 2016). For over ten trials, it was revealed that the use of body cameras had no effect on police use of force but led to an increased rate of assaults against officers wearing cameras.

Also, the study showed that the police officers who used excessive force on suspects were easily traced using body cameras. Therefore, body cameras have been found effective in increasing accountability and transparency in crime scenes and also there is evidence that these devices may increase the risk of assaults against officers hence need of more attention on how the body camera devices are implemented.

Use of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been effective in revolutionizing the policing department. To explore the effectiveness of social media in policing department, use of Twitter by the Dutch police departments have enabled the citizens to express their views about police matters hence improving the services offered by police officers (Meijer,2016). Most people in society have online presences, and social media is an important tool for police officers to learn more about people. Facebook has been used by detectives to track down suspect’s friends who can provide useful information about the suspects (Crump, 2011). Also, Facebook can be used by law enforcement agencies to follow the posts of suspects on social media, which gives insights about the mentality and the motives of the suspects. Social media is used by law enforcement agencies to communicate critical information to the members of the community. Police create social media accounts that help them to inform the community about suspected criminals or the possibility of terror attacks in a particular area. Law enforcers can also share techniques with other professionals through social networking sites like LinkedIn. The policing sector has been able to use social media to make their lives easier and the lives of citizens better.

Automated license plate readers are high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems that are mounted on street lights, highway overpasses or even on police cars. License plate readers then automatically capture the number plates of all vehicles that come in their view including the location, time and date and then this data is uploaded on the central server. The data provided by the license plate readers is then used by the police to determine whether a particular vehicle was at the crime scene. Information provided by the automated license plate readers can also be used by police officers to determine the movement patterns of vehicles and also to track stolen vehicles. However, although the use of license plate readers has become common in the police sector, few studies have been carried out to research on the legitimacy of the license plate readers. A study was conducted in 2014 to determine whether the public is aware of the license plate reader and whether the members of the community support the use of the devices (M. Merola, 2014). The study revealed that the public knows little about the license plate reader technology and the members who know about the technology support the use of license plate reader technology.

In summary, the use of technology has reformed the policing sector in the right direction where the crime rate has been reduced by a significant percentage. New technology devices have been employed in the policing department and enables police officers to track the crime suspects easily. Use of body cameras enables the police officers to record the fine details of the happenings in the crime scenes. Automated license reader technology helps the law enforcement agencies to track the movements of any particular vehicle and the technology has been used to track stolen vehicles easily. Use of social media has enabled the police to communicate crucial information to the members of the society effectively. New technology has improved the services offered by the policing sector, and the services continue to improve as technology advances.