Summary: Future Technology In Policing

I have chosen to discuss Pillar 3 Future Technology in policing today. This is discussed in the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (May 2015 Interim Report). In this paper I will be discussing how Technology can help police make their jobs easier, more productive, and also safer with everyday tasks. These new forms of technology also allow people in the community to feel safer and allows them to participate in crime fighting also. There are many new types of technology that are being used today that was never used before. This is the age of technology and if the police do not learn to adapt and use these new forms they will never be able to keep up with all these new types of crimes. Social media is now used today to send out alerts

The downside of all this new technology arising so quickly is that most people in policing have no clue how to use any of these new technologies. So everyone will have to be trained to use them. It also will cost departments significant amounts of money to buy these new forms of technology. This may be a deciding factor if they end up getting new technology and there is little evidence yet that these will help because everything is still so new.

Social media and new forms of technology usage is on the increase for criminals. The only way to combat this is to implement new training strategies that have to deal with new technologies. Also the technology has to be offered to them to be able to stay on the same level of the criminals and to stay one step ahead of them. “Law enforcement agencies face major challenges including determining the effects of implementing various technologies; identifying costs and benefits; examining unintended consequences; and exploring the best practices by which technology can be

“Implementing new technologies can give police departments an opportunity to fully engage and educate communities in a dialogue about their expectations for transparency, accountability, and privacy.”(Presidents Task Force) Here are a few new technologies that will help police with their everyday jobs that I found to be the most important and that would make a huge difference to keeping them safe and also keeping the community feeling safer and more comfortable with interactions with police. The first that I will discuss will be handheld spectroscopy lasers. These lasers all officers should have or need in the field. These lasers can help police detect dangerous powders in the field and take seconds to detect what kind of substance they are dealing with and has an accuracy rate of 95%. These lasers could save lives if they are dealing with some chemical that could be harmful to their lives and the community lives. They are very expensive so many departments do not have these as a resource. Another new technology device is a handheld translator. This would help police communicate with others that do not speak the language of the office who is responding to a crime scene or emergency situation. It would allow on spot translation and they would not have to wait for a translator to interpret on the phone or normally takes a