Engineering has several departments, and one of them is an information technology (IT). This department has matured to become an independent industry. The information technology industry manages information by the use of computer software and telecommunication. The responsibility of this department includes retrieving, storing, protecting, and processing information.
The police department has embraced this technology and has used it to its advantage. Information technology has been an enormous help to the police department, as it has made fighting crime fast and easy. More so when compared with the time information technology was non-existent. Today thanks to information technology, the crime rate has reduced significantly (Ponsaers et al., 2011).
The police department now can store and access criminal records with ease. For instance, a criminal record stored in the police department can easily be retrieved at any station. Thus, when a criminal escape, the police can pass the information quickly and efficiently to all stations to be on the lookout. This method of using computers to pass information from one department to the next one can be identified as networking (Miller et al., 2011).
Trips to the police station by officers to report a crime have been cut short since the information technology introduced an automated field reporting system. There exists a system that the officer who wants to report a crime can do that by using a laptop or even a mobile phone and then send it to the stations. This contains content that an ordinary form of the report contains. In fact, it contains an application where supervisors can approve or disapprove reports (Manning, 2008).
The police department has reduced the time that was spent trying to identify a criminal by the use of a fingerprint database. Everyone has unique prints that can be used to identify them from other persons. The police department uses a device that reads fingerprints to identify criminals, especially those involved in cross-border crimes. They have taken this system seriously they have ensured anyone who has a record of an offense has “their print taken and entered into the database”. In case of a second offence or escape, it is easy to track and catch the criminals, especially at the borders (Ponsaers et al., 2011).
CCTV cameras have also been an enormous help in eradicating crime. In fact, this system has improved a lot over the years. A time when criminals would be caught in cameras but could not be identified is in the past. CCTV method of fighting crime remains to be one of the biggest weapons available to the police department. The cameras have been installed in most areas of the streets, especially the areas where crime is high. With the knowledge of the existing cameras, the criminals tend to shy away, and crime rates reduce. The police use these cameras to watch the streets all the time (Miller et al., 2011).
Crime mapping another method of fighting crime that information technology has made possible has certainly been of great assistance in the policing department. This technology does not focus on the criminal but on the place of the crime so as to study the comfort zone of the criminal (Manning, 2008).
The above examples show how information technology has improved the community policing initiative. The police have become rational and goal-oriented. They use their energy in fighting crimes, rather than finding criminals. Community policing joining efforts with information technology have helped make the world a better place than when information technology was not used.
References
De, P. E., Ponsaers, P., Vijver, K., Bruggeman, W., & Deelman, P. (2011). Technological led policing. Antwerp: Maklu.
Manning, P. K. (2008). The technology of policing: Crime mapping, information technology, and the rationality of crime control. New York: New York University Press.
Miller, L. S., Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. M. (2011). Community policing: partnerships for problem solving. Australia: Delmar Cengage Learning.