Backbone of the police

Kevin Silva
Professor Probst Martin
English 1102
12/7/16
Backbone of the Police
In a world of innovation and the reliability of technology in our everyday lives,
technology is taken for granted and we should be using our technology professionally and
efficiently to benefit us all. In the science of technology there is no going back either, youre
stuck at the same place or advance to new discoveries, as it could lead to benefit all of society.
However, where we should take advantage of this by using this technology in law enforcement.
Law enforcement should be allowed to use new technology because it will improve efficiency,
increase safety and benefits to society as a whole.
Not too long ago police had all files and paperwork done by hand and had giant storage
rooms to store all their paperwork. It is astounding how much times have changed and that now
we can store all information to a computer easily and find files easy with identification numbers
and simple searches. This is the type of innovative advancement is what is needed in law
enforcement. Discovery is crucial and it is important as we seen throughout history, one of the
infamous discoveries was DNA testing and how it became an important part of investigating. A
chapter of snows, Technology and Law Enforcement focuses heavily on discoveries throughout
time but this chapter on DNA and it states, in the past fingerprints lifted from murder scenes

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have remained unidentified for over 40 years. We didnt know with whom to compare it to,
(Snow, 3)
Basically what the author is trying to explain is that weve had a lot of evidence not yet
identifiable but, with the discovery of DNA testing we were able to solve, convict and bring
those to justice even if they were 40 years ago. This all brings the importance of discovery and
how police can rely on it to get results.
New innovations are already in development and some just needing approval. Some
examples of these are Drones, GPS darts and robotic cameras and many more. With this
technology policing will change for the better and many lives will be safer, for both police and
the community. Surveillance is also a big part of policing and many of us dont realize that we
are under constant surveillance, not to say the police are following your every footstep but, they
are monitoring for criminal activity. A piece from the journal of current issues in crime and law
enforcement states, Other major developments relate to property crime, which is reported to be
decreasing because of these trends. The changes in the investigation of property crimes are
particularly apparent in the use of cellular and GPS technology to track and recover stolen cars.
In addition, the now familiar presence of surveillance cameras enhances the potential for
identifying suspects in many types of crimes as well as their locations, which makes it more
difficult for perpetrators of organized criminal activity to operate when they run a greater risk of
detection. (Batts,139) As you can see, there is already evidence of technology making an impact
in criminal behavior as careful monitoring is taken place as preventive measures and if worse
comes to worst to identify and track criminals. Another new use of technology is analyzing

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human characteristics and biometric identification, Tombul and Bekirs article in the European
scientific journal shows us a new type of technology and how it affects the outcome, Biometrics
are used to identify the individual. In addition, they are used to figure out who the suspects or
criminals are who are responsible for committing a crime" (Tombul and Bekirs)
Although all this technology sounds nice, police and the community have a problem
because of the media. New inventions and tactics are questioned heavily because of the way
police are portrayed in the media. Many dont trust police as it is and its not fair due to what is
shown to them without knowing the entire story. Stefanovska states "Police image directly
affects both police legitimacy and trust and therefore, scholars dealing with the issues of police
trust also have to deal with the media impact on building that trust furthermore this is
understandable as if one is accustomed to seeing and hearing the same thing consistently you
may start to believe it, and its not fair to the brave men and women trying to protect the peace
and community to be judged and harassed.
However, let us not forget that we are not always shown the full story and that police
have special rights and laws to protect them. Harmon states, that the state's legitimate interest in
maintaining orderthat is, eliminating a future threat of harm to the publicjustifies the use of
deadly force, even though it prevents adjudicating the criminal conduct. Thus, in addition to
using force to initiate the backward-looking procedures of criminal justice, police officers may
be authorized to look forward, too, in order to control imminent threats to public safety."
(Harmon), Basically we are told that police have the right to go a step above the threat if need be,
in order to protect oneself or the public safety. Which is why police carry firearms, they have the

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legal right and it is not critical to judge an officer of an action when you do not know the entire
story. This doesnt go to say that police can go and shoot anyone but just like any forms of
bureaucracy there will be a couple of bad apples.
In conclusion police should have the right to develop and use new technology as it has
proven to benefit investigations, prevent crimes and catch criminals. And it is also important to
give all officer situations a chance regardless of what they hear from the media because it causes
more problems and restrictions and will not let the police further advance their methods, tactics
and technology due to being biased.

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Work Cited
Batts, Anthony W., Sean Michael Smoot, and Ellen Scrivner. "Police Leadership
Challenges In A Changing World." Journal Of Current Issues In Crime, Law & Law
Enforcement 7.2 (2014): 139. Associates Programs Source Plus.)
Fatih, Tombul, and Cakar Bekir. "Police use of technology to fight against
crime." European Scientific Journal, vol. 11, no. 10, 2015, p. 286+. Academic OneFile
Harmon, Rachel A. "When Is Police Violence Justified?." Northwestern University Law
Review 102.3 (2008): 1119-1187. Academic Search Complete.
Hekim, Hakan, Police use of information technologies in criminal
investigations." European Scientific Journal, vol. 9, no. 4, 2013, p. 221+. Academic OneFile

Lipschultz, Jeremy. "Race and Local Television News Crime Coverage." N.p., n.d.
Web.

Snow, Robert L. Technology and Law Enforcement: From Gumshoe to Gamma

Rays.Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2007. Print.

Stefanovska, Vesna. "The Image of the Police in the Printed Media." N.p., n.d. Web.