Computers and Their Effects on Police Efficiency

Introduction

Computers have brought major changes to virtually every facet of our world, and police work is no exception. From desktop computers in the station house to laptop computers in police vehicles, a police officer's work is now as much affected by technology as a stockbroker's or an accountant's. Modern technology has made it possible not only for individual officers to be linked together regardless of location, but also for different police departments to communicate with each other across the nation, and even across international borders when necessary. Computers give police instant access to vast stores of information. With a few keystrokes, today's law enforcement officers can run background checks on suspects, look up the criminal records of people they have apprehended, and gain access to files that were previously buried in a basement or warehouse.

Computers are also an indispensable aid in the daily routine of the modern police department. Time-consuming paperwork that once occupied a significant portion of an officer's day can now be completed quickly and almost effortlessly, thereby freeing officers for the work they were meant to do — fight crime. Even the investigative side of police work has been transformed by today's technology. A computer can instantly generate a recognizable image of a suspect's face from a description supplied by a witness or victim. Computers can cross-check information at speeds previously unimagined. Truly, the computer is a powerful new tool for law enforcement.

There was a time when police work consisted primarily of a great deal of legwork. "The cop on the beat" was most people's image of the typical police officer. The patrolman spent his days wandering back and forth along specific streets, his eyes peeled for any signs of suspicious activity. He worked alone, or perhaps with a partner, but in all cases he was completely cut off from the rest of his department while out on the streets. His only communication with fellow officers or law-abiding citizens was by means of his own voice or the tin whistle that hung around his neck.

Such isolated policing created conditions that are virtually unimaginable today. Deprived of instantaneous contact with his department, the policeman faced a far more dangerous job than the one he now pursues. Each time he turned down a dark alley or entered a darkened building, he put his life in immediate peril. Unable to summon any help beyond earshot, he faced serious injury or worse. A single policeman, or even a pair of officers, would not dare enter a section of a city controlled by a dangerous criminal gang. Such criminal organizations ran rampant, terrorizing ordinary citizens and police alike.

Improvements, however, were on the way. Technology contributed early to the policeman's effectiveness. Just as the telegraph and telephone transformed communication in the nineteenth century, the police call box helped make police work safer and more effective. The officer on the beat was no longer truly alone as he walked the streets, nightstick in hand. If necessary, he could summon help from the nearest call box — a vital tool that linked him directly with the stationhouse. Following the call box's introduction in 1910, technological innovations came even faster. First there was the police car, and then the radio, both of which further improved police efficiency. With the police car, an officer could respond quickly to distant situations, and the vehicle shielded him from would-be assailants.

Though large and cumbersome at first, the police radio proved invaluable once it appeared in the patrol car. Even the early one-way communication — from station to car — brought about a considerable change in how officers conducted their work. A complainant could appear at the stationhouse or telephone in, and the sergeant on duty could immediately radio officers in the field. Response times were vastly reduced, and the chances of apprehending criminals increased. Police cars could rush to a crime scene while an act was still in progress, or before perpetrators had the chance to flee.

The later introduction of the two-way radio enabled officers in the field to report back on conditions in their area. They could call for reinforcements when necessary and give superiors information needed to deploy resources effectively. Most importantly, the two-way radio made the patrolman, for the first time, the eyes and ears of a single, unified organization. Investigations and emergency operations could be directed from a central command post. Every officer now had direct access to headquarters, its files, and its personnel. Additionally, radio and telephone revolutionized national policing. A wanted man could step off a train hundreds of miles away and find local police waiting for him. Information on a criminal's activity in distant parts of the country could be swiftly relayed to any station, providing local officers with much-needed intelligence.

Historical Development of Police Technology

New technologies were not limited to communications and transportation. The typewriter made police record-keeping far easier than it had been in the era of the stick pen. Typed records were easy to read and could be produced much more rapidly than handwritten ones. The copying machine further accelerated the production and transmission of files. More significantly, graphic images — fingerprints, mug shots, and the like — could be reproduced exactly as they were. Photography gave police a definitive record of a criminal's appearance, and fingerprinting provided an absolute, unique identifier for every person arrested and booked.

The influence of science — particularly medical science and pathology — led to ever more sophisticated techniques for investigating crime scenes. Biological and chemical evidence helped convict as many criminals as eyewitnesses and fingerprints once had. A coroner could determine almost the exact time of a murder victim's death, helping investigators narrow their focus. Spectroscopic analysis, ballistics testing, and even lie-detector machines all played a role in making science and technology an everyday part of police work.

However, all of these wonderful innovations came with a heavy price, measured in the reams of paperwork that filled station filing cabinets and city halls of records. A police officer or investigator could spend hours, days, or even weeks poring through dusty files. Matching the correct photographs or fingerprints could take months. An early attempt at solving some of these problems came in the form of punch cards produced by companies such as the International Business Machines Corporation — the modern IBM. A pattern of holes punched into a small paper card constituted a code corresponding to lines of text, and the heaps of criminal records built up over the years could be transferred to these cards, vastly decreasing the time spent simply searching for information.

Even the most sophisticated mechanical devices, however, have their limits. It was the dawning of the electronic age that truly signaled the beginning of a whole new era in police work. Data first stored on magnetic tapes would eventually migrate to sophisticated hard drives and CD-ROMs. High-speed computers could scan through millions of records in seconds. As technology advanced, the computer decreased in size and cost. It moved out of the chilly basement caverns required by its behemoth-sized forerunners and came to occupy every department, every stationhouse, and eventually every desk and patrol car. Armed with both a service revolver and a laptop computer, the officer now had access not only to effective protection but also to a world of information. Tasks that once took weeks or months — or were virtually impossible given human physical limitations — became ordinary and even expected.

Nevertheless, new computers brought their own problems. Learning to use a computer correctly required an entirely new set of skills. An entry entered incorrectly, or a key pressed in error, could result in wrong data being retrieved. Computers did not eliminate human error; they could even be said to have exacerbated it. A mistake minor on a handwritten document could be replicated millions of times on a computer. Program the computer improperly and the entire filing system becomes corrupted. And as police departments reached the stage of the paperless office, a new problem emerged: almost total human dependence on technology. Once all records are stored on disk and every task formerly done by hand is now done by machine, there is no alternative when technology fails. Furthermore, the more computers do for officers, the less interaction officers have with fellow human beings. Policemen and policewomen, like experts in every field, can rely too much on technology. Sometimes only good old-fashioned effort is the only way to solve a problem, and if officers become so dependent on their machines that they cannot function without them, a greater problem than ever before exists.

A wide range of computer technology is now available to the typical police department. As the discussion began with a look at the problems of communication among officers and between departments, it is useful to examine some current developments in this area. The Internet now pervades our society. It brings people closer together, speeds up the dissemination of information, and simplifies research of all kinds. It is an invaluable tool for the police officer just as it is for the businessperson, the government official, or the student. Yet the Internet is also fraught with problems. It is, without doubt, the most anonymous and easily accessible form of communication ever devised. Virtually anyone can post something on a website and have it made instantly available to millions of people around the world. Hate groups can plan their activities and spread propaganda on slickly packaged websites. Dangerous or illicit substances can be bought and sold without oversight or regulation. For the police officer, the particular problem with the Internet is its sheer openness: much of police work requires a certain regard for security, and a promising lead can be lost because a news organization picked up on a story.

The World Wide Web Consortium has developed and endorsed the latest products for encrypting data sent over the Internet. In particular, it uses a protocol called XML. As Donald E. Eastlake III of Motorola, Joseph M. Reagle, Jr. of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and David Solo of Citigroup explain:

XML Signatures can be applied to any digital content (data object), including XML. An XML Signature may be applied to the content of one or more resources. Enveloped or enveloping signatures are over data within the same XML document as the signature; detached signatures are over data external to the signature element. More specifically, this specification defines an XML signature element type and an XML signature application; conformance requirements for each are specified by way of schema definitions and prose respectively. This specification also includes other useful types that identify methods for referencing collections of resources, algorithms, and keying and management information.

The XML Signature is a method of associating a key with referenced data (octets); it does not normatively specify how keys are associated with persons or institutions, nor the meaning of the data being referenced and signed. Consequently, while this specification is an important component of secure XML applications, it is not by itself sufficient to address all application security and trust concerns, particularly with respect to using signed XML as a basis of human-to-human communication and agreement. (Eastlake, Reagle, and Solo, 2002)

Most importantly, this protocol carries the full endorsement of the United States Department of Justice. XML is essential to maintaining a universal standard of data encryption across all areas of law enforcement. A single system enables the rapid exchange of information among police departments and federal and state agencies. As Mark Kindl and John Wandeldt state in the U.S. Department of Justice report Structure and Design Issues for Developing, Implementing, and Maintaining a Justice XML Data Dictionary:

Collectively, rapidly growing caseloads, diminishing resources to process cases, and the increased mobility of criminals and society have combined to increase exponentially the need for complete, accurate, and timely justice system information. Justice system officials recognized the need for immediate access to more information and the means to move it electronically between organizations. More importantly, they recognized the necessity of a comprehensive, strategic, enterprise-wide approach to information sharing and integration between agencies. The establishment of a Justice XML Data Dictionary is one part of a strategy designed to enable effective information sharing and communications among the many justice and public-safety agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. (Kindl and Wandeldt, 2002)

Literature Review: Current Computer Applications

Another major concern — one that grew enormously following the events of September 11, 2001 — is the need for a standard public warning system that would enable police departments and other emergency service and government offices to link together in times of crisis. The Partnership for Public Warning, a federally sponsored organization incorporated in January 2002 and composed of experts from various federal law enforcement and emergency management agencies, outlined the following guidelines for coordinated emergency response in Developing a Unified All-Hazard Public Warning System:

Before the event (Preparedness): Analyze agency data and separate evidence from intelligence; be aware of other agency actions; advise partners and publics on what is known; identify gaps in knowledge; share information on past events; help partners and publics understand hazards and how to prepare; stay within areas of expertise but appreciate broader consequences; coordinate with partners to ensure a consistent message; be aware of public information already distributed by media; and gather information on the availability of local resources.

During the event: Tell what is known; stay involved; qualify statements with uncertainties; and provide authorities with needed information for local decisions.

Post-event (Response and recovery): Analyze agency data; be aware of other agency actions; provide necessary information for response and recovery; evaluate performance for continuous improvement; conduct rapid post-event data collection to support refined hazard analysis; support uniform terminology; look for evidence of secondary hazards; and determine the scope of the crime scene. (Adams, Allport, et al., 30–31)

The laptop computer has now become commonplace in American police departments, allowing the officer on patrol to stay in touch with headquarters and access law enforcement information and criminal files. The laptops used today are a notable improvement over older one-way systems that simply connected officers to a single database. A survey reported in Carolyn Ball and Kenneth Nichols's Integration of Law Enforcement Computer Technology, Vol. 1, prepared for the Maine Criminal Justice Assistance Council, catalogues current laptop uses including: the Maine Crash Reporting System (MCRS); word processing of incident reports; accident report entry; written messaging between officers; querying an agency's records management database; uploading incident reports; appending or amending records; viewing dispatch records; entering incident calls directly into a records management database; messaging other agencies; invoking computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software; accessing another agency's records management database; adding software via server; viewing suspect photos; and accessing jail information (Ball and Nichols, 8, 2001).

The same survey also highlights a persistent problem: while computers have enormously improved record-keeping, they do little good when different police departments use incompatible systems. "The most widely used is Spillman (17, or 21%). CRIS (by Megg Associates) is the second most popular RMS [Records Management System]. The 'Other' category includes Informix, Filemaker, ITI, and USTI, privately written software, and office products." (Ball and Nichols, 16, 2001) A similar wide variation exists in the systems and technologies used for data transmission. More than half of all law enforcement agencies (53%) report using electronic data transmission beyond voice communication, while roughly one in four employs CDPD (cellular digital packet data) (Ball and Nichols, 24, 2001).

Reporting similar results, Illinois Law Enforcement and Technology in the 21st Century by Robert James Fischer, PhD, of the Illinois Law Enforcement Executive Institute also introduces an important additional category: computers and the Internet have created a whole new way of training both new and experienced police officers. Satellite transmissions now play a role as high-tech classrooms. Although only 172 departments reported participating in satellite training, 282 responded that they believe satellite training is effective — a disparity that the report attributes partly to a lack of awareness about satellite downlink sites within 25 miles of a given department (Fischer, 2002). More than 50% of responding agencies have also participated in computer-based training of one type or another.

Computer technology has even transformed the evidence room. Judy O'Brien of the Westminster Police Department in Colorado outlines several advantages of new technology in "Evidence Management and Computer Technology":

Bar code technology was adopted to allow for fast and accurate entry of articles. With scanning devices and commands attached to identify and document the direct flow of evidence, personnel had greater flexibility in setting up programs enabling query capabilities by name, case number, location, status, and descriptors, to mention a few. Bar code systems greatly aid in the inventory function by increasing the speed of operations, saving budget funds, and lowering liability. (O'Brien, 2002)

O'Brien also provides a checklist of what a department's information system should ideally contain: document responsibilities; establish continuous custody records; prevent loss or unauthorized release of evidence; document accurate descriptions of each piece of evidence and its location; document unique or unusual circumstances regarding release or transfer; record the date, purpose, and signatures of individuals checking property out; and document destruction, auction, or any other movement of property (O'Brien, 2002).