Current and Future Challenges and Technology

Assignment Content

With the recent spate of police shootings in the United States, there has been an uproar regarding police discrimination against the black community. Technology has played a large role in these events, making the job of a police officer even more challenging. This same technology has the opportunity to improve policing policies across the country, especially when it comes to managing and building community relations.

Imagine a scenario where your department is considering using body cameras and social media as part of a digital dive initiative to build community relations. You have been asked to provide your observations on the future challenges in the field of policing and how the implementation of these technologies can contribute to building safer communities.

Write a 700- to 1,050-word white paper for your department. According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, “…the purpose of a white paper is to advocate that a certain position is the best way to go or that a certain solution is best for a particular problem.” In this case, your white paper is meant to help your police department better understand the issues and opportunities around technology, including the use of body cameras and social media.

Address the following in your white paper:

Describe challenges the field of policing will face in the future. Provide examples.
Explain how community relations impact the challenges police officers face.
Research and describe an incident for which using a body camera has helped the police in accountability and effectiveness. Research and state an example for which social media was used as a tool by the police in crime control and community relations. Identify new technologies that can be used in policing in the future to build safer communities and how. Provide examples. Recommend to your department what decision it should make regarding new technology, including the use of body cameras and social media. Justify your recommendation.

Include 2 academic resources outside of your textbook in your white paper.

ANSWER

Current and Future Challenges and Technologies

Introduction

Every day there are new technologies that are being utilized by the police departments ranging from automated license plate readers, body cameras, and analytical software that has been designed for detection of when and where crimes are happening within cities. However, the field of policing is also facing challenges posed by technological advancements. The access to information is increasing leading to the demand for more accountability and transparency from the police. This has led to future challenges that are linked to crime analysis, research, and law enforcement employment practices.

Challenges in Policing Field

Social media has already made its mark on the field of communications, but now it is beginning to seep into law enforcement. Police departments are finding themselves at a crossroads with this new form of communication. The social media age has made it easier for people to record and disseminate information across all forms of personal communication devices, including phones, tablets, and computers. On one hand, social media can be put to good use in police work, for example being used as an investigative tool or source for tip information. However, some challenges come with social media. The ongoing problem of police brutality is one of the major challenges for police and social media today. In recent years, several videos depicting violent acts committed by law enforcement officers have gone viral on various social platforms such as Facebook and YouTube (Kappeler, Gaines, and Schaefer, 2020). This has caused several controversies and strained police-community relations. Social media has also been seen as a platform that cannot be controlled. Information is free to go “viral” in ways that are not always beneficial for police work.

Due to increased access to information, the policing field is likely to continue encountering challenges to address accountability. A lack of comparable and transparent police data prevents policymakers and the public from fully understanding and addressing the problematic issues linked to police practices (Kappeler, Gaines, and Schaefer, 2020). For instance, police officers have found it challenging to respond to active shooters due to the public eye. The public eye has put pressure on the police officers for their response and actions linked to the situation. The public eye has led the public into situations that are challenging thus ending up in tragedy.

Community Relations

Community relations are considered as the changing and ongoing relationship between the communities and the police. Strong community relations between the police officers and the people they serve are vital in maintaining effective and policing and public safety (Peck and Elligson, 2021). However, negative police perceptions have led to a lack of public support which has prevented the police from apprehending criminals and the inability to recruit quality police officers from diverse backgrounds. Ideally, personal interactions have a great influence on perceptions.  According to Hatfield (2021), the public tends to form opinions from the police based on their interactions with them as well as the experiences that they hear from their families and trusted friends. The public tends to focus on how the police treat them in the interactions and process. The media encounters on police misconduct also impact perceptions of the police. For instance, continued exposure of police corruption and abuse have been strong predictors of perceptions of misconduct which support the negative perceptions by the public. Negative perceptions of the police by the public leads to a loss of police legitimacy and an erosion of public cooperation with the police. This can increase crime. Police legitimacy is the belief that police officers’ decisions and actions are reasonable, fair, and morally justified. When community members believe that their local police department acts fairly and uses appropriate discretion during routine encounters with citizens, they are more likely to comply with police commands and cooperate with law enforcement investigations.

Body Cameras and Police Accountability

Body cameras have been worn by law enforcement officers to record interactions with the public. The audio and video recordings have been used to demonstrate transparency to the communities through documenting statements, behaviors, and observations that deter illegal, unprofessional, and inappropriate behaviors by law enforcement and the public (Saulnier, St. Louis, and Walby, 2019). This is because the audio and visual evidence can be independently used to verify evidence. The body cameras have been used to protect the police offers against false accusations regarding their misconduct. For instance, in Baltimore, Maryland, an officer was found guilty and convicted for fabricating evidence after the officer was recorded by a body camera planting fake drug evidence. Therefore, body cameras have increased the effectiveness and accountability of police officers.

Social Media and Crime Control

Social media platforms are highly utilized in controlling crime, pursuing investigations, and sharing information with the public. The police departments have received and shared information with the public which has increased engagement and involved the community in many transformative and new ways (Williams et al., 2018). Police have conducted sting operations on social media platforms such as Facebook to connect with criminals through fake profiles. Police offers have been able to communicate in real-time about events and incidents. For instance, social media enabled police officers to apprehend a killer in Melbourne through their last moments on Facebook pages.

New Technologies

The use of technology in crime prevention and law enforcement is developing rapidly from predictive analytics to drones and biometrics which are helping in keeping rural communities and cities safer. Law enforcers can be in a better position to facilitate public safety through the right technology and inputs from community members. Computerized crime mapping technology will be one of the most effective technologies in crime prevention and building a safer community. The computerized crime mapping technology allows the law enforcement agencies to correlate and analyze data sources to develop a detailed snapshot of crime incidents as well as associated factors within a community (Jefferson, 2018). For instance, through crime mapping technology, the law enforcers will get informed about the crime incident areas, inform the residents about the crime, evaluate interventions and allocate decisions.

Body cameras will help with transparency and accountability in the local community. Body cameras can prevent confusion, contamination of evidence, and uncooperative participants by recording interactions as they happen (Saulnier, St. Louis, and Walby, 2019). In some cases, body cameras have been shown to result in the exoneration of officers who were falsely accused of wrongdoing. Therefore, utilizing body cameras in the field during interactions with community members is a major step in keeping everyone more accountable to each other.

Social media technology will help the police department to stay connected with the community. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people to speak directly with law enforcement agencies, helping them stay up-to-date on crime activity in their neighborhood (Williams et al., 2018). People want real-time information about incidents that happen around their communities and social media is a great way for police departments to provide this data. For instance, social media can be used to notify people in specific areas of breaking news, weather updates, and other time-sensitive information. The use of social media helps law enforcement agencies will build relationships with the public. With Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, people can be connected to their police department while being allowed to provide anonymous tips.

Conclusion and Recommendations

When examining the challenges and possibilities of the future of law enforcement, it is essential to contemplate existing predictions and trends. The current challenges in the policing field can be solved through the implementation of technologies that can make changes and resolve imperfections. The Department needs to focus on devices that will reduce the use of physical force of the police, increase accountability and help in community relations. Through social media, the police department can provide crime data to anyone who wants it while also reaching out to residents about safety concerns. Body cameras will foster crime control efforts as well as help protect both citizens and police officers from harmful allegations. Crime control efforts will be improved by increasing the level of both officer and citizen accountability. With cameras, patrol officers can record all types of interactions with civilians on camera, allowing supervisors to review them later for signs of corruption, illegal actions, or inappropriate behavior.

References

Hatfield, M. A. (2021). Improving Police-Community Relations in the USA. In Global Perspectives on Reforming the Criminal Justice System (pp. 40-55). IGI Global.

Jefferson, B. J. (2018). Predictable policing: Predictive crime mapping and geographies of policing and race. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(1), 1-16.

Kappeler, V. E., Gaines, L. K., & Schaefer, B. P. (2020). Community policing: A contemporary perspective. Routledge.

Peck, J. H., & Elligson, R. L. (2021). Race, Ethnicity, and Police–Community Relations. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Saulnier, A., St. Louis, E., & Walby, K. (2019). Police use of body-worn cameras: challenges of visibility, procedural justice, and legitimacy. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database

Williams, C. B., Fedorowicz, J., Kavanaugh, A., Mentzer, K., Thatcher, J. B., & Xu, J. (2018). Leveraging social media to achieve a community policing agenda. Government Information Quarterly, 35(2), 210-222.