Technology in Policing

Abstract

Since the turn of the century, we are living in a new technological era where devices are readily available and many communities enjoy ubiquitous connectivity. The primary goal of technology is to make lives easier and add additional value. Technology may be viewed as a substitution to human effort, but instead it augments human effort. Policing is an industry that has invested significant sums of money in technology in an attempt to enhance public safety. These technologies from Real-Time Crime Centres to leveraging machine learning for automated enforcement have produced opportunities but also generated challenges for the sector. Officers are ‘connected’ with sensors, and police cars are now computers on wheels, aided by the connectivity and affordability of devices which previously were considered cost-prohibitive. However, police services should refrain from simply implementing new tools but instead evaluate them through an ethical, legal and privacy lens. This chapter explores how technology is and can be leveraged by policing organization to become more effective and efficient in service delivery. The chapter will also provide a framework on how to evaluate new technologies prior to implementation such as security, evaluating data sources and legal considerations to privacy implications.