Technology has revolutionized the world. Law enforcement has not been left behind in this aspect, but police departments around the nation have been challenged by technological advancements ever since the advent of the modern policing era. There are benefits and drawbacks to the evolving technology such as no federal, state or local standards for law enforcement when it comes to technology regulation. It can be difficult for agency administers to correctly outfit their department with valuable and purposeful technology.
For small police departments, such as the Morgan’s Point Police Department (Harris County, Texas), keeping up with evolving technology poses obstacles for administration, as well as the police officers utilizing it. The Morgan’s Point PD (MPPD) has six …show more content…
The goal of the research was to identify, evaluate, and prioritize cutting-edge relevant technologies that hold the greatest priority for policing (Christopher S. Koper, Bruce G. Taylor & Bruce E. Kuba, 2009). Technological areas of importance to law enforcement includes communication/dispatch, identification/investigation, surveillance/sensors, weapons/tactical equipment. A few of the barriers to technology acquisition and use of technology revealed by the study were funding, training, skills & project management, partnership, and leadership/mission/culture. The results concluded with PERF suggesting more forums to discuss technology issues, such as the study they conducted, would result in a few important benefits to the policing profession such as: (1) identifying future available partnership opportunities; (2) developing standards for police technology; (3) assistance to agencies with finding funding for technology. Having such forums could also provide agencies with assistance in identifying what technology is relevant to the agency size and