Describe how technology can help the police w/ gang, vehicular pursuit and crime scene problems

Introduction

The advancement of technology in the twentieth century was one of rapid acceleration, especially in the perpetration of vehicular crime as well for the advancement in crime scene investigations. Police forces have become overly techno-aggressive to play catch-up. The technology provided to the police officer is being justified by the advanced methods and implementations employed by the criminal element in society.

The police cannot operate without information and have in recent years become more intelligence-led focussed. Most forces have moved away from the reactive style of policing into a more modern community focussed style of policing. It began with Problem Orientated Policing (POP) and into the new and updated system called Reassurance policing. Reassurance policing is co-dependant on intelligence-led policing. The first issue is to use intelligence data to identify where problems are and when they occur.

In the United States the introduction of the motorcar and the more significant innovation; personal radios, provided greater mobility and independence from fixed points and the fixed beat system (Ackroyd et al., p100). In 1968, in all the police forces in Glamorgan, police on the beat were issued with blue and white panda cars and were able to respond more rapidly which demoted foot patrol to an old fashioned era. The new increased mobility police officers could now patrol an area up to 6 times as large as could be managed by other officers on foot (South Wales Police, 2006). This was of great importance at a period when the costs of policing were rising, and with the expansion of specialist police functions, a manpower shortage and the adoption of motorised policing provided great technological support (Ackroyd et al., p100) The change was so fundamental that within a few years specific community based police officers were brought in to rebuild the bonds between the public and police, which many perceived this method of unit beat policing (patrol cars with radios responding to emergency calls) had broken (Ackroyd et al., p92). The motorcar also became a popular consumer good and people started using the to break the law. Specialist traffic enforcement units were created which suggests that the motorcar contributed to the development of the police organisational structure (Soulliere, p110). Motorcar technology development continued apace and in 1974 Visual Average Speed Computer and Recorder (VASCAR) units were fitted to patrol cars (South Wales Police, 2006).

Discussion

As radio communications developed over time, police officers in the U.S. were made possible to react quicker, track down suspects more rapidly even out of their areas. Police officers in addition were able to communicate information about an incident from the station or from the patrol car, therefore allowing people closest to the scene to respond without delay. Police officers could set-up road blacks, provide assistance and have better relations with other departments and have increased safety by being able to call fro help. The ability to communicate over distances with the vehicle-mounted radios impacted police work and ...