Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 5

Research Paper Example In order to improve the security as well as reducing police workload at the same time, new technological innovations have come up that are capable of improving the performance of the police. These technologies have expanded considerably and added reinforcement to frontline officers. According to statistics from the 2007 survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the local police departments use various technologies for different law enforcement processes. In turn, these technologies have reduced the workload of police and effort used in day-to-day activities. For instance, the criminal investigation uses 60% of technology, crime mapping and analysis (100%), dispatch (49%), information sharing (50%), and record management (79%). In addition, 90% of departments serving over 250,000 people use fingerprinting technology and two-thirds also reported to be regularly utilizing video cameras for speed, CCTV, and those in patrol cars (Roberts). The emergence of fingerprinting and crime laboratories between 1900 and 1920 has by far increased the capacity for the police to solve crimes and incarcerate the guilty offenders. Later in the years, this is what emerged to be the core of forensics (McElreath et al. 299). The driving force for the introduction of forensics was to foresee justice prevail because before, the judicial proceedings were just based on evidence coming from victim statements and coerced confessions. Forensics was the better option after jurists and criminologists were convinced that it had standards of neutrality and objectivity. In addition, forensics could add fairness and precision to investigations as a result scientists and doctors had a partnership with the police so that they could integrate solving crimes and science (McElreath et al., 300). Despite forensic taking charge a bit slowly, most police departments in the US began appreciating the results it brought