New Technology in Law Enforcement to Keep an Eye Out For
There’s a common misconception that police work is inefficient, with many manual processes hindering the timely resolution of investigations and general operations that serve the public. However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Technology in this day and age puts crime-fighting methods on a whole new level, especially with new types of crime emerging. Some recent developments that many police departments across the country are adopting are drones and police evidence management software. Here are other new technologies that law enforcement should keep an eye out for to stay ahead of growing crime.
1. Facial Recognition Software
A fast-emerging technology that’s becoming more common in police investigations is facial recognition software. While extremely useful, there are both pros and cons in using this in police work. While facial recognition is advanced enough to scan thousands of faces in a crowd, it can also detect a look-alike’s facial features and mistakenly identify them as the suspect. Without careful implementation and ethical use guidelines, facial recognition software may also be abused by the police themselves.
Police evidence management software ensures that data gathered using facial recognition technology is appropriately recorded and organized for accuracy.
2. Biometrics
The police force has used fingerprint analysis for over a century, and there is now a growing array of biometric and behavioral qualities also used by these professionals. From voice recognition to wrist veins and gait analysis or heartbeats, identifying criminal activity with different characteristics has never been more comprehensive.
3. Artificial Intelligence
The Internet of Things (IoT) that is ever-present in today’s network of interconnectedness produces more data than ever before for collection and analysis, plenty of which is especially useful to law enforcement.
While it is valuable, data collection, organization, and analysis is an extremely daunting task requiring time-consuming focus to generate valuable insights. A more cost-effective and efficient method for data analysis is with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Along with police evidence management software, AI supports many other police technologies and can be used for crime mapping and crunching data to pinpoint high-crime areas to monitor and deploy additional resources.
AI is also applicable for predictive police work, with deep learning algorithms that analyze data from different sources to predict when crimes are more likely to occur. This ensures that police officers are situated in the right place at the right time to deter criminal activity.
4. Drones
Drones aren’t just for impressive aerial shots of fireworks shows and hot-air balloon festivals. They are incredibly versatile pieces of technology that allow police to take part in search and rescue efforts, crime scene work, crowd monitoring, and more. Some models can do thermal imaging and 3D mapping for enhanced GPS accuracy during surveillance. They also have zoom cameras.
5. Evidence Tracking Solutions
Police evidence management software will include evidence tracking solutions to ensure that your officers can identify, document, record, and track evidence at the scene of the crime. All this recorded data is uploaded into a database that is accessible to different authorized personnel without relegating your police officer to hours of manual encoding. Comprehensive tracking solutions will include tools such as barcode evidence tracking to save time, reduce errors, and avoid duplicate entries.
Keeping Up With Police Technology
As police technology develops and evolves, leaders in law enforcement must take on the responsibility of keeping up with these new and advanced capabilities. Staying ahead of criminal tactics while providing officers and the public with safety as efficiently and ethically as possible can only be done by leveraging these technologies. While this list is by no means exhaustive, police evidence management software and other technologies can provide leaders and law enforcement agencies with insight as to what technological tools are available and how they can help the world become safer every day.
At PMI Evidence Tracker, we provide law enforcement agencies with effective tools for the management of evidence and property. For easy-to-use systems like police barcode scanners, get in touch with us today!
