NCJ Number
139306
Date Published
1993
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the continuing evolution of police strategy and the advances in police information technology, followed by guidelines for ensuring that the latter serves the former.
Abstract
The most prominent emphases in current police strategy are community policing and problem-solving policing. Community policing focuses on a police department's partnership with the communities it serves. It broadens the scope of police actions and widens the responsibility for producing results. Problem-solving policing features the identification of patterns of policing problems, an analysis of causal and contributing factors, the development of a strategy to address the problem, and systematic monitoring of the effectiveness of the action taken. Community policing, along with problem-solving policing, requires the development, organization, and analysis of certain kinds of information related to neighborhood policing. Types of information or knowledge required can be categorized as "special skills," "knowledge of resources," "local knowledge," and "local acquaintance." This paper examines the development of information systems based in these data categories and then discusses how developments in police information technology can serve the policies and procedures of contemporary policing. The two technologies given special attention are computer-aided dispatch and automated fingerprint identification systems. Requirements for these systems are outlined. 9 notes