There are many critical issues that face the policing community on a daily basis. These issues are not only from a personal, but a technological standpoint. There are many types of technology used in the policing community. There are some that enhance the job and those that detract from the functionality of the officers as they try to serve and protect the community.
With this ever changing world, there are so many stressors and dangers that police officers have to confront on a daily basis and without the right technology, these officers are left to their own devices. Officers who have symptoms of distress, reduced effectiveness, increased motivation, and dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors at work are said to be in the state of burnout. There are organizations that police can turn to for help with these different kinds of stress but they have to admit that they are having issues. (Roberson) Officers who get burnout are in danger because they lose focus and do not care as much for the job that they do, add to that the likelihood that there is also depression on top of that and you have a recipe for disaster.
When an officer gets ready for his day, he must be mentally, physically, and technologically ready for anything that may come his/her way. Mentally, an officer has many stressors: physical, psychological, internal, external, and operational. Physical stressors have to do with their health issues such as heart attack or ulcers. Psychological issues might include depression or anxiety. Internal stress could be caused by the general duties and policies that are in place and changing in the work place. External stress is caused by the lack of support by the people that they protect and operational stress is caused by the job itself.
Technology is a wonderful as long as it does what it was intended to do effectively and efficiently. Body armor is widely used and is very effective in preventing officer deaths. Many officers now carry tasers or conducted energy devices and other non-lethal weapons to help apprehend suspects. There are arguments that tasers are not safe because they have caused several deaths, but there may be unrelated or mitigating circumstances to these deaths as well. If the officers had not used the taser, what alternatives would have been used and what would that outcome have been? When getting a call to go to the scene of an incident, an officer who has GPS tracking and computer aided dispatch is able to quickly get the dispatch and is able to cut down their response time. Interagency radios also cut down on incident response time. These items may mean the difference between life and death is some cases.
Once on the scene, there are a few items that help with retrieval of vital information on the suspects. Fingerprint scanners, DNA equipment, and integrated databases are very useful in the field. An officer is called out to a scene and a suspect has an identification card with Mike Smith on it. Mr. Smith has no record and the officer uses the fingerprint scanner to find out that his real name is Scott Rhodes and is wanted in two other states on multiple charges through the wireless access in the vehicle on the integrated database. This suspect could have gotten away if these things were not in the vehicle. Some of the other non-lethal weapons are high intensity light weapons and sound wave devices. The high intensity light weapon puts out bursts of light that will disorientate a suspect or suspects. The sound wave devise puts out high sounds that will cause many uncomfortable symptoms, none of which are life threatening. These devises cause discomfort, nausea, disorientation, and possible hearing damage. (Christopher S. Koper, 2009)
Police officers are faced with so many things in their day to day lives that can cause harm either physically or mentally. By giving them the best equipment and tools to face their day we arm then with what is needed to protect the citizens of their district safely and effectively. The criminals see them as an obstacle to overcome to continue their activity. In some areas, putting on a police uniform is like painting a bullseye on your back during hunting season. Let us try to keep our officers out of the cross hairs as much as possible so that they can do the same for us.
References
Christopher S. Koper, B. G. (2009, 3 16). Law Enforcement Technology Needs Assessment. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from Police Forum.org: http://www.policeforum.org/library/technology/Lockheed%20Martin%20Report%20Final%203-16-2009.pdf
Roberson, M. B. (n.d.). Policing Today and Tomorrow. (P. Education, Editor) Retrieved September 2012, from Policing Today and Tomorrow: http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_birzer_policingtoday_1/45/11605/2971129.cw/index.html