Realizing the Potential of Technology in Policing - The Center for ...
Realizing the Potential of Technology in Policing
A Multisite Study of the Social, Organizational, and Behavioral Aspects of Implementing Policing Technologies
by Christopher S. Koper, George Mason University (PI)
Cynthia Lum, George Mason University (PI) James J. Willis, George Mason University (Co-PI) Daniel J. Woods, Police Executive Research Forum
Julie Hibdon, Southern Illinois University
Supported by the National Institute of Justice (2010-MU-MU-0019)
Realizing the Potential of Technology in Policing
The authors shown below used federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report:
Realizing the Potential of Technology in Policing
A Multisite Study of the Social, Organizational, and Behavioral Aspects of Implementing Policing Technologies
Christopher S. Koper, George Mason University (PI) Cynthia Lum, George Mason University (PI) James J. Willis, George Mason University (Co-PI) Daniel J. Woods, Police Executive Research Forum Julie Hibdon, Southern Illinois University
December, 2015 This report updates an earlier version, dated "January 2015"
Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
This study was supported by National Institute of Justice Grant # 2010-MU-MU-0019
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Realizing the Potential of Technology in Policing
STUDY CONTRIBUTIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project was conducted by the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP) at George Mason University (GMU) and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) with funding from the National Institute of Justice (U.S. Department of Justice, Grant # 2010-MU-MU-0019). Additional funding was provided by the Center for EvidenceBased Crime Policy (the authors thank CEBCP Executive Director David Weisburd for this support). The project was developed and directed by GMU professors Christopher Koper and Cynthia Lum (principal investigators) in collaboration with GMU professor James Willis (co-principal investigator). Drs. Koper, Lum, and Willis developed the study themes, research design, and instruments (for interviews and surveys); conducted all fieldwork and evaluation studies in Agencies 1 and 2 (with the assistance of Professor Julie Hibdon of Southern Illinois University); assisted with portions of the fieldwork in Agencies 3 and 4; and wrote all sections of the report with the exception of Section 7. Current and former staff of PERF, including Dr. Daniel Woods and Mr. Bruce Kubu, assisted with the collection and analysis of survey data across the four study sites, conducted the fieldwork in Agencies 3 and 4 using the themes and instruments developed by the lead investigators, and wrote Section 7 of this report. Robert Davis of PERF provided managerial support and helpful feedback on the draft version of this report. The authors also thank Stephen Happeny, Julie Grieco and Jordan Nichols of George Mason University for research assistance and Dr. Brett Chapman of the National Institute of Justice for his assistance in managing this project.
We extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to the participating police agencies that provided us with tremendous cooperation in support of this project (their identities are kept anonymous in the report).
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Practitioner's Brief
Understanding the effects of technological change is a critical issue in contemporary policing. In recent decades, there have been many important developments with respect to information technologies (IT), analytic systems, video surveillance systems, license plate readers, DNA testing, and other technologies that have far reaching implications for policing. Technology acquisition and deployment decisions are high-priority topics for police, as law enforcement agencies at all levels of government spend vast sums on technology in the hopes of improving their efficiency and effectiveness.
Realizing the Potential of Technology in Policing
It is not clear whether these changes have made police more effective. Evaluation research on police technology has tended to focus more on operation and outputs-- for example, whether a technology works and makes a process faster--than on its effectiveness in reducing crime or improving service to citizens. And the evidence that is available on technology and police performance suggests that technology's impacts may be limited or offset by many factors ranging from technical problems to officer resistance. Developing a better understanding of technology's impacts and how they can be optimized is thus an important challenge for police agencies, particularly those hoping to leverage new technologies as a force multiplier to offset budget and staffing limits.
Toward this end, we investigated many of the social, organizational, and behavioral
aspects of implementing police technologies in this study for the National Institute
of Justice. Our goals were to more fully understand technological changes in policing
and make recommendations for optimizing the use of technology in policing. Using a
multimethod approach in four large agencies (both urban and suburban) that
included officer surveys, field observations, extensive interviews and focus groups,
and experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations, we investigated the uses and
impacts of several information, analytic, surveillance, and forensics technologies
that are central to everyday police functions (e.g., IT and mobile computing, crime
analysis, and license plate readers). This approach allowed us to examine how these
technologies affected police--in intended and unintended ways--with respect to
operations, management, agency structure, culture, efficiency, effectiveness, citizen
interaction, and job satisfaction. At the same time, we also tried to assess how
various aspects of police organizations, culture, and behavior shape the uses of
technology--and hence its impacts.
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We found that technology's effects are complex and contradictory; technological advances do not always produce straightforward improvements in communication,
cooperation, productivity, job satisfaction, or officers' effectiveness in reducing crime and serving citizens. Desired effects from technology, such as improving clearance rates and reducing crime, may take considerable time to materialize as agencies adapt to new technologies and refine their uses over time. Some of these challenges stem from implementation and functionality problems with new technology, which can have negative and potentially long-term ramifications for the acceptance, uses, and impacts of that technology. Further, while technology can enhance many aspects of police functioning and performance, it can detract from others (for instance, the reporting requirements of new IT and mobile computing systems may reduce the time that officers spend interacting with citizens or doing other proactive work).
Realizing the Potential of Technology in Policing
Perhaps more fundamentally, police may fail to make strategically optimal uses of technology for reducing crime or achieving other aims such as improving their legitimacy with the community. One key finding is that because many officers tend to frame policing in terms of reactive response to calls for service, reactive arrest to crimes, and adherence to standard operating procedures, they emphasize the use of technology to achieve these goals. To illustrate, officers in our study sites were much more likely to use IT to guide and assist them with traditional enforcement-oriented activities (e.g., locating persons of interest and checking the call history of a location) than for more strategic, proactive tasks (e.g., identifying hot spots to patrol between calls or doing preventive problem solving). They were also much more likely to find their job satisfying when they used technology in these traditional ways.
This is not to say that technological advancement in policing is undesirable and will not bring improvement. However, technological changes may not bring about easy and substantial improvements in police performance without significant planning and effort, and without infrastructure and norms that will help agencies maximize the benefits of technology. Strategizing about technology application is thus essential and should involve careful consideration of the specific ways in which new and existing technologies can be deployed and used at all levels of the organization to meet goals for improving efficiency, effectiveness, and agency management.
Our recommendations to police practitioners are discussed in detail in Section 12 of
this report. In brief, they include: allowing for a broad base of participation in the
technology planning and implementation process by various personnel who will be
affected by the technology; providing ample opportunities for pilot testing and
refining early versions of a technology; ensuring proper levels of training for new
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technology; and preparing a systematic and continuous approach to follow-up, in-
service training, reinforcement, ongoing technical support, and adaptation to new
lessons.
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