Law Enforcement and New Technology

It is hard to imagine just a few decades ago, the concept of using radios to assist police was considered futuristic. In today 's world the use of technology, including onboard computers in police vehicles, wireless communication devices, and the Internet, are commonplace. The evolution of policing has been connected through the years with technology. Starting from the days of “beat cops" or "bobbies" and their "runners" who helped collect information; the law enforcement branch of the criminal justice system has had an interesting evolution. In today 's world, the use of technology assists in this effort. The introduction of technology to Law Enforcement was already at a boom, in 1964, St.Louis was the only city to have a police computer system; and four years later, 10 states and 50 cities had state-level criminal information systems. The most vital and important computer-aided task is the identification of criminals.(Siegel &Worrall)
In the new millennium of law enforcement, police are becoming more advanced and sophisticated with their use of computers and computer software to identify and apprehend criminals. Many new technologies have been developed to provide case files, data warrants, and also to locate the location of criminals and crimes taking place as it happens. The National Crime Information center, which was implemented by the F.B.I in 1967, provides fast retrieval and collection of data about a person that is wanted in any of the 50 states. There are many newer technologies that are being used and perfected to grasp a stronger upper hand on crime and more effective way of capturing criminals. For example, Crime Mapping gives police a graphic facsimile of where the crime is taking place in their jurisdiction. It also gives the power of analyzing a vast array of data to formulate detailed visuals of crime patterns.

After reading about the newest technologies used in law enforcement in the textbook, I chose to take two types of technologies and

References: hicago Tribune, “Forensics under the microscope”, www.chicagotribune.com“Introduction to Biometrics”, www.biometrics.org “ Using DNA to solve crime”, www.justice.gov |