This paper examines key innovations in database communication technologies used by law enforcement, with a focus on Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) and facial recognition systems. It surveys how these tools have evolved to improve officer efficiency, community relations, and perpetrator identification. The paper also critically evaluates the negative consequences of these technologies, particularly their potential to enable racial profiling and unconstitutional search practices. Drawing on sources from criminology, forensic science, and legal scholarship, the paper concludes that while the operational benefits are clear, responsible implementation requires addressing underlying cultural biases within law enforcement agencies before full standardization can be ethically justified.
The paper demonstrates a point-counterpoint argumentative structure. Each technology is introduced with its operational benefits and then subjected to a sustained critique grounded in civil liberties law and sociological theory. This technique — presenting the strongest case for a position before systematically qualifying it — is a hallmark of balanced academic analysis in criminal justice and public policy writing.
The paper opens with a broad framing of digital technology's impact on public administration, then narrows to law enforcement. Two core technologies are examined together in one section, followed by dedicated sections on positive and negative effects. The conclusion synthesizes both sides without dismissing either, recommending conditional rather than unconditional adoption. This five-part structure (introduction → technology overview → pros → cons → conclusion) is a reliable model for applied technology-policy papers at the undergraduate level.
The proliferation of computer, digital, and web technologies has had a significant impact on how civil and public administration functions are performed. The ability to engage in real-time communication through an array of media, the opportunity to access enormous databases of information from the field, and the capacity to capture sound, video, photo, and other data have all enhanced productivity, efficiency, and sophistication in many fields of great sociological importance. Few functions of public administration are more important than law enforcement and the administration of justice. This paper considers some of the technological innovations in computer databasing that have had a direct impact on the way police officers perform their job responsibilities, with a specific focus on the enhanced communication opportunities emerging in the field.
Both Mobile Data Terminals and facial recognition technology have become increasingly common tools in the law enforcement arsenal. Each technology incorporates the storing of data and the wireless transmission of that data in order to improve the accuracy, speed, and fairness of police work. Mobile Data Terminals have become an extremely important part of traffic law enforcement and the pursuit of fugitive perpetrators. They are essentially computerized monitor or tablet devices built into squad cars, connecting every officer to a shared network of information on citizens, perpetrators, and others. According to Monopoli (1996), this technology began to take shape in law enforcement in the early 1980s, ultimately becoming a standard tool for running license plate numbers, identifying stolen vehicles, and keeping officers informed of All Points Bulletins and emergency management information.
Monopoli indicates that this technology remains in an ongoing state of evolution: "A statewide mobile data network with the capacity of 5,000 devices began in 1992. The current trend in mobile computing involves the use of pen technology to enable officers to complete incident and accident reports in the field using full-function computers. . . . Digital cameras are also currently available that will integrate with notebook and pen-based computers and allow the attachment of photo images to incident or accident reports in the field. Police officers of the future will probably be able to use a combination of technologies to handle diverse tasks." (Monopoli, p. 1)
In addition to the conveyance of verbal data, technologies have become increasingly focused on providing officers with multimedia database instruments. One of the traditional functions of law enforcement throughout its modern evolution has been the capacity to identify members of the citizenry, whether victims, missing persons, suspects, or known perpetrators. Fingerprinting and the distribution of driver's licenses have historically served as necessary biometric instruments for identifying members of the population. Increasingly, however, digital and photographic technologies are enabling yet more extensive tools for identifying subjects. The use of facial recognition technology has opened new opportunities that significantly supplement traditional biometric tools. As Hess (2010) indicates, facial recognition can provide crucial support in identifying individuals where other biometric indicators are lacking: "while fingerprints assure higher rates of accuracy than face recognition can, facial recognition provides benefits when fingerprint data does not exist, is not easily shared between agencies, or when multiple independent verification methods are desired." (Hess, p. 1)
Especially at a time when law enforcement security concerns include preventative measures against potential acts of terrorism, ever-higher incidences of identity theft, and increasingly porous international borders in an era of globalization, the ability to incorporate facial recognition into the arsenal of crime-fighting instruments is of growing importance. As Hess points out, certain modes of facial recognition have always been used in crime-fighting and law enforcement. The police line-up — in which the suspected perpetrator is presented to a witness or victim alongside a group of individuals with similar features — is a mode of perpetrator identification that relies on facial recognition in order to maintain a balance of justice and fairness.
Among the advantages of integrating improving technologies into law enforcement is the enhanced ability these tools provide agencies to establish and maintain contact with the communities they serve. The databasing opportunities created for compiling information regarding useful community contacts, agencies, and organizations have expanded with the insertion of web-ready computer access into everyday enforcement and security strategies. According to Wallace and Roberson (2009), community relations is increasingly seen as an important avenue for creating networks of informed citizens, vigilant neighborhood groups, and highly engaged police officers. Wallace and Roberson also indicate that this has been largely facilitated by the integration of mass media such as television or radio, combined with databasing that is both web-based and internal to any given department: "The area of community relations is gaining more importance in police work. A computer may assist the department by allowing users to update speaking schedules and to maintain lists of community associations and citizens who work with the department to solve community issues." (p. 319)
This demonstrates that one of the primary advantages of employing evolving communication and information technologies is that they can significantly ease and improve the manner in which officers engage traditional crime-fighting methods. The omnipresent demand for officers to be an active part of a functioning community may actually be accommodated by new and continually improving databasing technologies. For instance, the use of more effective facial recognition can help ensure that officers identify and engage perpetrators without resorting to more randomized and potentially invasive methods of providing community safety and protection. The insertion of certain algorithms into the process of identifying perpetrators helps reduce human error, which is always a potential concern in law enforcement. According to Weiss and Davis (2005), "Facial recognition technology makes use of unalterable features of a face, such as the distance between the centers of the pupils of the eye. It then uses an algorithm, a finite set of steps for solving a problem, which converts the image to numbers. The software program is then able to compare the digital photograph of a face with others in the database and bring up matches in gallery format, with the most likely match first. The officer or deputy then decides which of the matching images, if any, are of the person in question." (p. 1) This process helps reduce the threat of false identification.
Ultimately, this discussion suggests that the benefits of using evolving databasing technologies in law enforcement are self-evident. With these tools now becoming more commonplace across varying law enforcement agencies, they are clearly necessary instruments in the task of fighting crime. Still, caution is warranted before recommending full-fledged standardization of such technologies. Though it is the law enforcement culture — not the technologies themselves — that may lead to abuses of privacy or civil rights, such cultural conditions should be thoroughly addressed in any agency before fuller implementation proceeds. Doing so can help make these technologies part of a process that improves not just the practical, but also the ethical dimensions of police work.
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