What are the issues in the minds of police officers, law enforcement and the public which engages with police on a daily basis? Here is a list of six issues we’ve spotted that are highly popular now.
- Police Shootings: In the wake of heated debate about police abuse of powers after a few high profile cases have hit the media, the Walter Scott shooting and murder charge have entered the fray. The shooting in North Carolina has stirred a host of issues, including the right to record police activities. Other issues too are being discussed such a gentrification, the number of police shootings in the last 10 years, and the probable sentencing for patrolman Michael Slager who shot and killed Walter Scott.
- FBI Moving to the Cloud: The FBI announces it’s moving to the Cloud with Microsoft Azure Government Cloud platform. The talk is now on the implications of the decision, namely how agencies and entities around the country will need to comply with the CJIS Security Policy.
- Police-Public Relations: More attention has been given to the nature of the relationships between the public and the police, especially across racial lines in the aftermath of many police shootings of unarmed African American men. The call for proactive relationship-building from police to the public continues to grow, leading to more community leaders and decision makers to evaluate measures that communities can take to improve relationships before tragedies strike.
- Rise of More Video Recording Technology: The last year has seen a rise in both interest and use of technology that can take digital video and audio recordings in the field, in the office and more. In fact, an article published in April 2015, points out that , “in addition to infield computers, two-thirds of police departments throughout the nation reported regularly using video cameras, and well over half (61 percent) reported using video cameras in patrol cars.”
These devices, including body cams, dash cams, video and audio recording systems and tablets to name a few, are being leveraged to provide the hard evidence that previously was difficult if not impossible to access, qualify, and produce.
- Technology and the Police Officer: It’s not only video recording systems that are increasing in policing, but a host of technologies. In fact, technology is completely transforming policing on many levels, and this can be seen in its impact on the police officer. Newer technologies that have emerged on the scene in the last decade have changed the role of police, expanding their responsibilities to not only reactive duties of responding to incidents, accidents and more, but to proactive duties which having infield computers such as the Microsoft Anywhere tablet Other types of technology that have emerged for the police officer include:
- Laptop computers or mobile digital terminals/computers
- In-car cameras
- Automated license plate readers
- Multiband radios
- RADAR/LIDAR devices
- Automated vehicle location
- Emergency lights
- Sirens
- And More
- Technology and Law Enforcement: Technology has also had a tremendous impact on law enforcement as an entire entity. In fact, it has changed the structure and the operation of many law enforcement agencies and has thus made it possible for administrators to achieve greater efficiency and deployment of resources. Technology is helping law enforcement on the whole determine crime trends more precisely and identify intervention and investigative assets more effectively according to the April 2015 article. Both the rise of social networking and the proliferation of smartphones have increased the role of the public to communicate with police, not to mention adding in building greater accountability across both sides.
What’s Next?
Policing will continue to undergo dramatic changes as technologies become sharper and more widespread across the nation. What key trends or issues has your force or department witnessed in the past year? What about in the past quarter?
We invite you to comment here!