The Impact Of Technology On Policing In The United States

Technology has greatly impacted policing methods in the United States. In the early years of American policing, officers patrolled neighborhoods on foot. This form of community policing lost popularly throughout the years due to the invention of cars and other technological advancements. With recent reports of police misconduct, some departments have emphasized the importance of connecting with the community in order to prevent issues with the public and have gone back to community policing. Also, in the early years of policing, officers did not have radios to communicate effectively with their partners, which can be extremely dangerous. Today, every police department in the country provide their officers with their own cars, radios, protective vest, dash cameras, gun, and other non-lethal tools like mace spray. These particular tools have helped facilitate officer’s daily duty, but within the last few years the public has asked for an increase in monitoring of officer’s actions. …show more content…
On this date, Darren Wilson, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri fatally shot and killed Michael Brown. According to witness, Brown was not armed and had his hands up when Officer Wilson killed the black teenager. Officer Wilson gave a different account of the tragedy that occurred that day. The officer stated that Brown was a suspect in a recent grocery store robbery and that he Brown attacked him prior to him fatally shooting Brown. If Officer Wilson would have had a body camera, a better understanding of what occurred could have been recorded which would have prevented chaotic riots in Ferguson. The purpose of this research is to analyze the pro and cons of having police officers in the United States wearing body camera in order to record all their interactions with the