Technological Advancements and Law Enforcement: A Dynamic Duo In a world where advancements in technology continue to occur daily, there have been many useful impacts on law enforcement, as well as challenges. Technological advancements have made drastic changes to law enforcement’s effectiveness and efficiency, the impact on the role of law enforcement, as well as challenges in bringing justice. In addition, offenders have found new ways to use technology to commit many crimes, such as phishing and scamming, and law enforcement has many challenges in bringing these crimes to justice. It is essential to take a deeper look at the impact of advanced technology on law enforcement. Changes in Law Enforcement due to Technological Advancements Effectiveness …show more content…
Advancements in technology allow policy agencies to improve their connections with their community, ultimately changing the effectiveness of how their jobs are done. For example, “new social media technologies enhance communication between themselves and citizens to strengthen[en] that relationship” (Lum et al., 2016, p. 2). Efficiency Alongside effectiveness, the second noticeable change in law enforcement is efficiency. With the amount of calls law enforcement responds to on a daily basis, efficiency is a crucial factor in successful operations. Technology, such as license plate readers, has aided in working efficiently for many departments. Police have “adopted license plate readers to detect stolen vehicles because the readers enable them to automatically scan hundreds of vehicle license plates in mutes, as opposed to manually entering selected plates into computer databases one-by-one” (Lum et al., 2016, p. 2). Another beneficial change for law enforcement is how records are now kept. Use of computerized record keeping “replaced the hand reporting, shelving, and analysis of police reports so that information could be more easily searched, retrieved, and analyzed” (Lum et al., 2016, p.
The emergence of new and innovative technology can be used in many deceitful or secretive ways by law enforcement agencies to convict a suspect. The Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights has had a large influence in regulating the ways that law enforcement agencies may use technology against the everyday citizen. Technology can be used to obtain information on an individual without the individual being aware of the invasion of their privacy: e-mail accounts can be hacked, IP addresses can be traced, phones can be tapped and tracked, cars can be bugged.
In the United States, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including FBI, Department of Homeland Security, among others, have taken on roles to fight computer crimes and terrorism. The roles and responses of these law enforcement agencies concerning digital crime have created challenges that limit enforcement efforts against digital crime.
As the Rise of cyber crimes grew so did the FBI’s influence on the growing technology.
NIJ (National Institute of Justice) interviewed countless professionals at their sponsored symposium about what is expected of the criminal justice system in coming years. Bryan J. Vila a former chief of the Office of Justice Programs, explained that if technology evolves, the crime
Reiss, A, Jr. (1984). Consequences of Compliance and Deterrence Models of Law Enforcement for the Exercise of Police Discretion. Law and Contemporary Problems, 47(4), 83-122.
Recent advancements in technology have had a huge impact on the current criminal justice system. These new developments have made it easier for those in the field to track down criminals and help provide better evidence to support their cases. Things such as fingerprint databases, DNA testing, GPS tracking, and many other things have made it easier for prosecutors or defendants to prove their cases in court. This is very beneficial because with this new wave of technology officials are now able to provide more reliable and credible evidence in court. This current upsurge of technology will help benefit a lot people in the field. People such as law enforcement, falsely accused criminals, prosecutors, defendants, judges, the list just goes on and on. Technology has been has had a major impact on the criminal justice system, it is now been made easier to track down and catch criminals and made it so that the evidence provided at court is more reliable and credible.
The use of technology in the policing domain has been rapidly adopted over the past few years. However, it should be noted that the process of adopting and effectively using technology in law enforcement, begun more than 50 years ago. For instance, it become apparent in the 1950’s that computer would enable easier storage and retrieval of large amounts of data. More recently, advancement in technology has incorporated more sophisticated ways of transmitting and analyzing information, therefore aiding the law enforcement process (Button, Sharples & Harper, 2007). The police have found various aspect of technology useful; predominantly, computer crime mapping has been widely adopted and consequently received a lot of attention (Goldstein & McEwen, 2009).
Technology and the Invasion of Privacy As citizens of America we are all entitled to our rights of privacy. When something threatens this guaranteed privacy we tend to take extra precautions to prohibit prolonged violation. As the advancing world of technology continues to grow and expand, so do the amount of cases involving privacy invasion. Technology drives these privacy-invading crimes; however, crime also drives technology, creating a vicious cycle.
Homicide rates may be decreasing due to improvements in emergency medical care, but aggravated assault is still prevalent. Similarly, break and enters and motor vehicle thefts rates are lowering due to the development of better security system; while the widespread of internet usage leads to a rise in cyber crimes such as a rapid increase in fraud (Cartwright, 2017, lecture 3). Traditional crimes did not decrease or fade away, they “have simply moved to the internet” (Cartwright, 2015, tutorial 3) and continue to occur within the
Technology over the years has improved in the criminal justice system. Ever since the 1960s criminal justice systems have used technology to advance and gain a better knowledge of the different issues and encounters officers may face. Technology is used to improve the day-to-day operations, decrease operation cost and increase strategic planning and tactical approaches.
Computers take part in a big role in the Criminal Justice Field. So far computers have allowed us to make it accessible for witnesses to go through and look for a suspect's picture on the screen. Computers have enabled us to be able to do DNA testing. Which now only takes the labs a short time to process, and finding criminals from cases 15+ years ago can now be charged for their actions.
Today, technology has affected our global surroundings in a number of ways. Technology has created a more advanced society and economy. We use technology in every aspect of life today. New innovations and technology helps create a safer atmosphere and reduces the rate of crime. Technology is the usage and knowledge of techniques or is systems of these things. Usage of technology in the criminal justice system is not new but more apparent today. Technology in criminal justice will continue to challenge us to think about how we turn information into knowledge. Due to new technology, criminal investigations are able to maintain and improve their processes. Forensic science, DNA, other and future technology has all had a tremendous impact on criminal investigation and its process.
Throughout the years, technology has been increasing in both good and bad ways. Technology is now being used to contact people through social media, link people together through group chats, and also spy on people. Although connecting with people instantly on social media is the upside to technology usage, people often tend to share private information that can be used in the wrong way which is the downside of technology. As both technology and crime increases, technology usage is now being increased to help solve crimes. Many years ago, without the usage of technology, many aspects of a crime was not questioned or the resources to uncover certain evidence were both time consuming and/or expensive. The Police Chief Magazine list many technological improvements that have been put in place to
These types of crimes have become a matter of importance for the consumers as well the business firms because it involves large eviction of the amount in terms of money. In these types of crimes, computer and Internet are the primary factor (Spinello, 2000). A high percentage of population is using computers in the Australia, United States as well as other developed nations. These people are much more connected with the world by the use of internet. They are using the computer for fun, business, e-commerce, e-marketing, etc.; thus, it has become an essential part of life and daily routine (Wall, 2008).
Globalization enables cyber criminals to come together and collaborate on cybercrimes and share ideas on how to commit crimes, which makes it harder for police to prevent the criminals’ crimes. These criminals target many people to gain personal information or take advantage of the victims in another way. However, there are international and national agencies committed to combating cybercrime and making progress in accomplishing this goal. Lieutenant Amanda Simmons of the South Carolina Computer Crime Center believes “there is a possibility that nearly every crime will eventually involve some high-tech piece of evidence” due to the younger, technologically-savvy generation (Wolf, par.18). This shows the extreme increase in cybercrime as a security threat.