Page 368 - NIXBOOK

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS

As with everything else, the internet changed policing quite a bit, as you might imagine. As the years went on we got more and
more new ways of replacing old techniques with better software and programs. It started in the late 1990’s and has continued
non-stop since then, and being connected with and to computers and clouds and servers and the internet had become very
integrated into this line of work.
And most police agencies eventually switched over to websites like www.publicsafetytesting.com that provided new recruits for
hiring, instead of the old fashioned testing and hiring process. For example, when I got hired in ’93, the city had to print up
about a couple hundred application packets that were about 10 pages long. The original had been created on a typewriter and
then reproduced on a photocopier. Then the city clerk’s personnel department had to coordinate a physical fitness test for a
couple hundred applicants (the ones who successfully filled out their applications correctly) and then they had to administer a
written test in a classroom for the next phase. All of that is now handled by independent companies that test and qualify
applicants themselves, and then offer those names to interested police agencies.

Interweb connectivity allowed us get in on a county-wide police report database program, which turned out to be pretty useful;
every name ever typed into it was there forever, meaning name and address and date of birth and phone numbers etc. only had
to be entered in once. Here’s an incomplete list of things that came into existence during the time that I was a cop.

-Door keys were replaced with RFID keycards.
-Online secure cloud storage for evidence photos.

-Online access to DOL photos.

-License Plate Reader cameras came into use.
-New and improved alcohol breath testing equipment.

-3D laser mapping systems for car crash scenes.

-Online access to drivers records .
-Online access to jail inmate phone recordings.

-Online access to department policy manual and employee handbooks.

-Online access to time sheets and work schedules.
-Electronic fingerprinting, instead of using paper and ink pads.

-Electronic Home Monitoring -ankle bracelets - became a thing.

-Pawnshop databases, allowing police to look up and track stolen/pawned
items.

-Registered Sex Offender mapping for citizens to look up who is in their neighborhoods
-Online crime mapping for citizens to look up what’s going on in their communities.

-Computerized database for inventory of the property and evidence room, complete with barcodes.

-Surplussed city items (old equipment etc) now available online for anybody to buy.
-Handheld laser barcode scanners in patrol cars to scan drivers licenses and DOL vehicle registration papers.

-Laser Detection and Ranging speed measuring devices (LIDAR) to supplement/replace radar speed measuring devices.

-Many databases (both government and private) for detectives to look up people.
-Video arraignments for prisoners in custody; making it easy for judges to talk to prisoners in different parts of the county.

-Computer aided dispatch with mobile computer displays in the patrol cars.

-Digital traffic ticket software, typed into patrol car computers and printed out on thermal ink paper.
-Online crime reporting for citizens to file minor police reports without calling 911 for an officer response