TECHNOLOGY IN LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY

Technology in Law Enforcement Agency

Technology in Law Enforcement Agency

Introduction

Law enforcement has always been a data intensive industry. Investigating criminal activity, implementing problem-oriented policing, processing court cases, and managing correctional facilities are all heavily dependent on information for their successful operation. Until recently, however, implementing integrated information systems to better manage available data has typically been beyond the technical and fiscal reach of most organizations within the criminal justice system (Dunworth, 2006). Not surprisingly, the technical and fiscal constraints experienced by the criminal justice system are similar for many other organizations in the public sector.

In the early twenty-first century, however, the technical, fiscal, and management barriers to implementing integrated information systems are falling dramatically. Both hardware and application software are becoming less expensive and easier to manage, and they provide greater performance (Brown, 2007). Equally important, de facto standards have emerged over the last decade that have significantly reduced the fiscal and technical management costs of data communications (e.g., TCP/IP, HTML), operating systems (e.g., UNIX, Windows) and applications software (Abell, 2008). All these factors are converging to offer new opportunities for systems development and integration for public sector organizations.

In addition to technological change, however, the structure and geographic organization of criminal justice have had profound effects on the development of information systems. The American criminal justice system comprises local, county, metropolitan, state, and federal governments. At each level of government, criminal justice agencies are typically divided along functional lines, such as police, courts, prosecution and defense, corrections, probation, and parole. The juvenile justice system, which is a separate entity, has many of the same components as the adult criminal justice system and is not discussed here (Dunworth, 2006). Finally, each state jurisdiction and many local ones enforce different laws and operate under different legal infrastructures. Thus, the organizational disjunctures that exist within the criminal justice system by level of government, agency function, geography, and legal structure represent not only significant potential barriers to developing integrated information systems but also a major reason to promote the development of such systems.

Discussion

There are several devices now used in the law enforcement agencies. The more commonly encountered devices are wiretaps, miniature microphones, pen registers, digital cameras, and e-mail monitoring technology. Wiretaps were the devices employed in the Olmstead case. Miniature microphones are recorders capable of capturing low levels of sound while being worn without detection by those who are under surveillance. Today the devices are used extensively when collecting evidence for undercover operations involving narcotics or prostitution (Brown, 2007). The ability of the judges and jurors to see and hear individuals as they commit a criminal act is a powerful tool in the process of carrying out justice. Pen registers are used in cases involving telephone communications (Abell, 2008). Unlike wiretaps, which provide the actual communications, pen registers only provide information relating to the telephone numbers dialed by the telephone that is under surveillance.

The last two devices, digital cameras and e-mail monitoring technology, are the more heatedly debated devices currently used for ...