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REFLECTION PAPER

In the world of policing, the use of technology to reduce crime and improve internal
processes has showed some great potential. The role of the police in the community is invaluable
especially when it comes to prevention and tracking of local crime. Because of its importance to
maintaining peace and order over the areas they are responsible for, it is vital that the unit as a
whole strive to improve and make more efficient their service. According to the article by Friend
(2004), most police units now have a limited budget, especially following from the recent
economic slump in the United States. With the shrinking budget, there is now a tighter limit to
the training and employment of new officers in police units, human resources vital to the process
of law enforcement the police is responsible for. As a solution to the aforementioned problem, a
particular police unit in Santa Cruz, California, experimented with the application of an
innovative crime-prediction algorithm in order to forecast crimes within their area. The system,
as described by Friend (2004), works through the use of historical and current crime data in order
to predict future crime hotspots. The algorithm is developed by Santa Clara University in
partnership with the Santa Cruz Police Department aimed at aiding the police department in
maximizing current resources. The program identifies locations within the locality where crime
would most likely occur next based on prior data on where and when a certain crime happened,
and through this it generates a crime hotspot map police officers can use for reference during
patrol. The results of the project had been very successful, and throughout the experiment period
of the program, it has increased Santa Cruz polices crime apprehension rate (Friend, 2004).
However, the more important result is not only the increased apprehension rates, but the general
reduction in crime it has brought to the locality as well.

Although successful, the crime-

prevention program done through the use of this new technology did not come without

challenges. Senior police officers preferred to use maps provided by crime analysts instead of the
computer-generated maps, believing that their experience and more developed intuition is a more
valuable source of knowledge in predicting crime. Technology and innovation in this case, must
not be viewed as a substitute to human knowledge, but instead a supplement to it, all for the
spirit of doing more than just what you can offer. The crime-reduction technique adopted by
Santa Cruz police helped them efficiently make use of existing personnel through being able to
properly allocate time-shifts, and deploying the right number of officers at the right place and at
the right time. All these were made possible without an additional increase in budget, hence
proving that technology enabled them to improve how they work. Because of this, the
experiment has been adopted in larger localities such as the Los Angeles Police Department
(LAPD), whose area of responsibility covers a wider geographic scope and a larger number of
citizens. In both places, the application of the breakthrough algorithm was a success.
Aside from the use of new technology in developing new capabilities for the efficient
practice of policing, existing technologies could also be used in to aid in the crime investigation,
dissemination of information regarding crime, community police services and release of
emergency information. The Toronto Police Service (TPS) made good use of the booming
influence of social media as a way for them to involve themselves within the community. TPS
developed a comprehensive social media program from 2010-2011, in recognition of the
popularity of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook (Police Executive Research
Forum, 2013). TPS now manages a public information page through their own Facebook and
Twitter accounts, with careful consideration of the accuracy of content. TPS makes sure to
properly represent the police unit online through a selection and training process that requires
officers that handle the said social media accounts knowledgeable of the appropriate ways of

communication and response TPS could give. Aside from public information dissemination,
social networking sites prove to be gold mines for information regarding crimes. Investigation
using the said online platforms has now been extensive, and most police units use information
available in the said sites in tracking individuals possibly related to an incident of crime. Social
media being a network for sharing, also poses challenges to keeping crime information within
the limits or bounds of control of the police. People involved in crime, usually victims, post
sensitive information online, making them public to anyone with access to the individuals online
posts. Such actions are variables that are difficult to control, and may pose a threat to the
development of an investigation. The police now also use social networks to map the occurrence
of riots and flash mobs. For this aspect of using social networks as a way to aid the police, the
community plays a bigger role, especially those individuals on the scene. Through looking at
these information, the police will be more empowered in performing their duties well through
analyzing the mood of the masses, and the possible tracking of legal violations happening within
their locality. This could also work on the investigation side, where police can gather intelligent
information online about future mass gatherings or riots that disrupt local order. Other studies
has identified technology-aided crime prevention through the use of soft-technology, those that
are information based, and hard-technology, equipment based uses of technology to prevent
crime (Byrne & Marx, 2011). Examples of soft-technologies are gunshot-location devices,
crime-mapping and vigilant registration. For hard technology, some examples are the CCTV
camera and the fingerprint recognition systems police departments employ and use for crime
investigation.

Overall, it can be said that technology-aided policing is an effective tool in minimizing


crimes today as it helps increase the visibility of police through efficient scheduling while
reducing costs associated with the enforcement of police tasks.
References:

Byrne, J., & Marx, G. (2011). Technological innovations in crime prevention and policing. In
Technological-led policing (pp. 17-20). Antwerp: Maklu.

Friend, Z. (2004, September 13). Predictive Policing: Using Technology to Reduce Crime.
Retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://leb.fbi.gov/2013/april/predictive-policingusing-technology-to-reduce-crime.

Social media and tactical considerations for law enforcement. (2013, May). Retrieved December
10, 2014, from http://www.policeforum.org/assets/docs/Free_Online_Documents/
Technology/social media and tactical considerations for law enforcement 2013.pdf

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