# data[].attributes.body
"Equipment and Tactics." Police Technology: 21st-Century Crime-Fighting Tools, edited by Glen C. Forrest, Britannica Educational Publishing with Rosen Educational Services, 2017, pp. 29-52. Law Enforcement and Intelligence Gathering. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX7119200008/GVRL?u=pleasant_vhs&sid=GVRL&xid=7dceb3e0. Accessed 2 May 2019.

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"Police Body Cameras." Issues and Controversies: Overviews and Pro/Con Arguments, edited by Facts On File, 1st edition, 2019. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofissues/police_body_cameras/0?institutionId=9742. Accessed 02 May 2019.

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Inventions and innovations have changed society dramatically over the centuries. They have proved especially beneficial to police. Technology has introduced new vehicles to improve the mobility of officers. It has advanced the techniques by which police forces communicate for daily operations. Steady progress in computer technology has also given agencies new systems for accumulating and managing criminal information.

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Until the late nineteenth century, many police officers worked in civilian clothes, especially in small towns and rural counties. In some cities, most officers were armed only with wooden nightsticks, also known as billy clubs. If they could not subdue a criminal on the streets single-handedly, they blew a shrill whistle to summon help.

Today, uniformed police typically carry an assortment of sophisticated weapons and defensive gear. They are highly trained in the use of each instrument and in personal confrontation tactics. Patrol and investigative officers are aided greatly by modern surveillance technology.

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The amount of equipment carried by uniformed officers has grown considerably since the 1950s, when it basically consisted of a handgun in a holster, handcuffs, and a nightstick

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. Today, the belts worn by uniformed police officers in urban North America typically have a number of holsters or cases for carrying an automatic pistol, spare clips of ammunition, metal and plastic handcuffs, a portable radio, pepper spray, a collapsible baton, andPage 31  |  Top of Articlea video microphone transmitter (if the officer's car contains a camera). A clipboard with spare report forms is also standard equipment. In addition, many police officers carry first-aid kits and other medical equipment, such as a defibrillator, in their patrol cars; they also may carry a portable breath analyzer (also called a Breathalyzer) for testing drivers who may be intoxicated.

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the foot patrol. Officers were deployed by time of day (watches) and area (beats).

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Foot and mounted patrols were followed by bicycle patrol

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The development of the automobile in the late nineteenth century dramatically transformed police work in the early twentieth century.

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The equipment carried by the standard police vehicle in these New World cities significantly evolved from the 1970s to the early twenty-first century. In the 1970s, the police car was basically the same as the mass-produced vehicles owned by citizens.

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it carried consisted of a two-way radio

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In the earliest police forces, communication was accomplished through oral or written orders in an administrative chain of command.

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During times of duress, the men on watch would raise the hue and cry to summon assistance from the citizens of the community

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Face-to-face contact gave way to the use of telegraphs in the mid-nineteenth century, and in the late 1870s, police departments began installing telephone systems. In urban jurisdictions, call boxes, or street telephones, were placed on beats to enable patrol officers and citizens to alert the central command of disturbances. In 1937, the first emergency telephone system was established in London, where callers could dial 999 to speak to an operator

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Early systems of police dispatch involved a single operator who took calls from the public and dispatched officers via radio. In 1917, the police department of New York City began equipping patrol vehicles with a one-way radio receiver that enabled the central command to send emergency messages to officers. However, that and other early radio-communications systems were fraught with technical problems.

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In 1928, following several years of experimentation, the police departmentPage 21  |  Top of Articleof Detroit, Michigan, improved the technology to allow regular contact between headquarters and patrol units; the system developed in Detroit was subsequently the basis of police communications systems used throughout the United States

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Two-way radio receivers were first deployed in 1933 in Bayonne, New Jersey, and their use proliferated in the 1940s. Radios in patrol cars were eventually supplemented by portable radio transceivers carried by individual officers to allow uninterrupted radio contact between officers and the dispatch center. Dispatch was improved in the United States in the late 1960s with the establishment of the 911 emergency telephone system. Similar systems have since been adopted in other countries throughout the world.

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By the twenty-first century, the modern big-city patrol vehicle was routinely fitted with heavy-duty alternators to power numerous electronic devices and a powerful cooling system to handle engine heat while idling during hot weather. It was alsoPage 16  |  Top of Articleequipped with an array of electronic devices, including radios, siren and light controls, a public-address system, a cellular telephone, a radar unit to measure motorists' speed, and, in many jurisdictions, a mobile digital terminal for access to police databases

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To this basic equipment many police officers add cell phones or pagers, flashlights, binoculars, tape recorders, portable scanners, plastic gloves, and extra weapons

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Finally, an essential piece of equipment is the bulletproof vest, which covers the torso of the officer and is worn either over or under the uniform shirt.

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Helicopters, the most common type, are often equipped with a high-intensity spotlight that can provide overhead illumination for units on the ground. AnotherPage 18  |  Top of Articledevice used by aircraft, a passive infrared unit sometimes called forward-looking infrared (FLIR), provides night vision.

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FLIR units can measure the heat energy emitted by objects and living things, enabling ground units to be directed to a particular location.

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police equipment throughout the world is becoming increasingly standardized.

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Nonlethal weapons include electronic devices, chemical agents, and a variety of different striking instruments, such as straight, side-handle, and collapsible batons and an array of saps, truncheons, and clubs.

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Electronic technologies include the stun gun, which delivers an electric charge that causes muscle spasms, pain, and incapacitation, and the TASER

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Audio surveillance, or electronic eavesdropping, became practical for obtaining evidence and investigating leads after the development of magnetic recording in the early twentieth century. Among the earliest automated surveillance systems were telephonePage 47  |  Top of Articlepin registers, which recorded the phone numbers called from a certain surveillance location.

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Police already use body and dashboard cameras to record visual evidence during pursuits, investigations, and arrests. But law enforcers and other first responders—firefighters and emergency medical professionals—believe they could work more effectively if they were able to share live images and video, combined with voice communications, while situations are developing.

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A government initiative that might make that possible is FirstNet, the First Responder Network Authority

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FirstNet will be an LTE (long-term evolution) network. LTE is a fairly recent type of wireless communications network. It can transmit large volumes of data over great distances at high speed.

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On the FirstNet website ( http://www.firstnet.gov ), FirstNet administrators point out, “Situational awareness during an incident will help protect people, property and first responders

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FirstNet will stream real-time photos and video of emergency scenes. It will also report the locations of responders at the site and in the area. Eventually, developers hope to incorporate even more advanced technologies, such as an audio function that can pinpoint sources of gunfire.

FirstNet officials explain that the system will give local command centers greater ability to manage emergency situations. At the same time, it will integrate with regional and national operations centers as needed. In short, FirstNet is foreseen as “a single platform for public safety communications.”

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Modern systems allow investigators to record the numbers of both incoming and outgoing calls, as well as any conversations. Other technologies enable audio surveillance through covert miniature microphones and radio transmitters and a variety of radio-receiving and voice-recording equipment. Self-contained wireless microphones are now so small that they can be hidden in virtually any object.

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Police conduct visual surveillance with binoculars, telescopes, cameras with telephoto lenses, video recorders, and closed-circuit television (CCTV).

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Low-light cameras can record images in almost complete darkness; those equipped with infrared emitters can record images in total darkness

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CCTV cameras enable police to look under doors, through windows, or around corners. They also may be placed in waterproof housings attached to cables as long as 150 feet (45 meters) to conduct underwater search operations.

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A specialized application of CCTV cameras captures images of drivers committing specific traffic offenses (such as speeding) and automatically issues citations to them.

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recorded images may be used as evidence in court to confirm or refute allegations of improper or illegal conduct by police officers.

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Lie detectors utilize sensors placed on the test subject to record respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, and galvanic skin response—a change in the flow of electrical current across the skin that can result from emotional arousal

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Computers were eventually placed in patrol cars. These mobile digital terminals (MDTs) enable officers to check licenses, wanted-persons lists, and warrants from the patrol vehicle without making an oral radio transmission. MDTs have been supplemented with a wide variety of digital pagers and cellular phones.

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The NCIC's database enables local police departments to apprehend offenders who might otherwise evade capture. The database contains fingerprints, a registry of sexual offenders, and mug shots, and it can be queried for detailed information on stolen vehicles and warrants for firearms violations; it can even search for phonetically similar names. Similar databases maintained by US states provide police with access to misdemeanor warrants, driver-citation records, and vehicle-ownership information.

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In the late twentieth century, police agencies and departments throughout the United States and in some areas of Britain began adopting computerized systems, known as CompStat (computerized statistics), that could be used to plot specific incidents of crime by time, day, and location. By revealing previously unnoticed patterns in criminal activity, CompStat enabled police departments to allocate their resources more effectively,es in which it was used

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Computerized records systems can be extremely effective in drawing out relationships between past and present cases and suspects.

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Although records are essential for effective police operations, police departments would be overwhelmedPage 27  |  Top of Articlewithout a mechanism for filtering information and making sense of it.

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The Enhanced 911 (E911) system, adopted in the United States, instantly identifies the number of the phone from which the call is made, as well as the name and physical address of the person who owns the phone. Data maintained in the E911 system sometimes include a history of calls to the police from the caller's location. When the CAD system is linked to a global positioning system (GPS), dispatchers can immediately identify the police cruiser nearest the scene of the emergency.

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Computer-assisted-dispatch (CAD) systems, such as the 911 system in the United States, are used not only to dispatch police quickly in an emergency but also to gather data on every person who has contact with the police. Information in the CAD database generally includes call volume, time of day, types of calls, response time, and the disposition of every call.

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Body cameras will improve law enforcement and reduce incidents of police brutality.

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Making footage available to citizens and the press will render police work more transparent and restore public trust.

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Publicizing footage will erode privacy for the individuals recorded, and store and analyzing it will prove costly to taxpayers.

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In April 2015, Michael Slager, a 33-year-old white police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, fatally shot Walter Scott, an unarmed 50-year-old African American man, after he pulled Scott's car over for having a faulty taillight. Slager claimed he had feared for his life when Scott stole his Taser, an account backed by the police department. Days later, however, a bystander, Feidin Santana, released cell phone footage of the shooting to the media that showed the two men engaging in a brief scuffle before Scott ran away. Slager then shot Scott eight times in the back before placing an object, which many speculated was his Taser, next to Scott's prone body.

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The events surrounding Scott's death escalated a growing cry for police departments to outfit their officers with body cameras so that incidents of police brutality could be documented, rendering them less vulnerable to narrative manipulation by police.

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Body cameras are video-recording devices most often clipped to an officer's uniform at the chest or shoulder, or attached to an officer's glasses or other head wear.

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Many police departments already use dash-cams

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During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, for example, members of the Black Panthers, a militant black power group, followed police and used tape recorders, cameras, and notebooks to record police activity

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. Several major cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., either have already begun implementing body camera programs or have plans for pilot programs under way.

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Body cameras have also received federal backing.

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The spread of police body cameras, however, has raised a host of questions: When should body cameras be turned on? Who should be allowed to view the footage? Should police officers continue recording while in private residences? How will police departments pay for the expensive process of storing and analyzing the immense amounts of data generated by body cameras? How long should police departments be required to keep footage? Could body cameras make civilians, including domestic violence and sexual assault victims, less likely to reach out to officers for help?

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they also raise serious questions about how technology is changing the relationship between police and the community

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Some have noted that body cameras have the potential to invade the privacy of the people being recorded, particularly in instances in which encounters with police occur in a private home.

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restricting public access to body camera footage. Critics of such policies, however, argue that limiting public and media access to these videos undermines the very purpose of body cameras—to bring transparency to police work.

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Supporters of body cameras argue that the technology will have a civilizing effect on officers and civilians alike, and will reduce incidents in which officers use excessive or lethal force.

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Police have repeatedly lied to the public about incidents of police brutality, body camera proponents contend, and video footage will provide evidence to hold rogue officers accountable.

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Opponents of body cameras argue that the technology will have little effect on officers' conduct or in reducing incidents of police brutality. Body cameras threaten to erode individuals' privacy, they add, and discourage victims from reaching out to police.

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The use of lethal force by police officers, however, remains high.

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Critics of police often argue that officers must be held to higher standards of accountability to justify the use of lethal force.

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"What matters, legally, is whether the officer reasonably believed that those factors were present—or can convince a jury that he did,"

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In August 2014, Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed, 18-year-old African American.

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In April 2015, the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, an African American, while in police custody, sparked massive protests and rioting in Baltimore, Maryland, and renewed the national conversation over police brutality. After days of unrest, prosecutors announced that six police officers would face criminal charges for transporting Gray, handcuffed, in a police van without being seat-belted—a practice, known as "rough rides," intended to toss suspects around—and failing to obtain medical attention for him despite his pleas for help. Gray died from injuries to his spine.

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revealed that several officers had disobeyed rules to keep their body cameras turned on

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As more police departments in the United States adopt body cameras, law enforcement agencies, civil liberties advocates, and municipal leaders have struggled to establish rules governing their use. One key issue is when officers should be required to turn on their body cameras.

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, access to footage has spurred debate.

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Civic leaders have also debated whether and when police officers should be allowed to view their own body camera footage.

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"consider individual privacy concerns before making footage available to broad audiences."

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a final concern over body cameras is cost. The cameras themselves can range from $120 to $2,000 each

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Supporters of body cameras argue that they will improve law enforcement and have the potential to curb police brutality. "Historically, there was no documentary evidence of most encounters between police officers and the public," the website for the American Civil Liberties Union notes, "and due to the volatile nature of those encounters, this often resulted in radically divergent accounts of incidents

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Video evidence, supporters argue, is often the only way to uncover the truth in incidents in which police use lethal force

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Body cameras, advocates assert, will help restore public confidence in how police officers perform their jobs.

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Police departments should not only adopt body cameras, supporters argue, but should also make the footage available to journalists and the public.

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"The goal of body cameras is to build trust between communities and the public servants sworn to protect them. If the public can't see what the police are doing, that will never happen."

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body camera footage will also reduce crime by providing vital evidence to help convict lawbreakers.

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Opponents of body cameras argue they will erode the privacy rights of the individuals being filmed.

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"Everyone's worst day is now going to be put on YouTube for eternity."

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have the potential to tilt the balance of power even further in favor of law enforcement to the detriment of the public.

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They contend that the use of body cameras could actually backfire because so much of officers' jobs rests on their ability to generate a rapport and trust with community members.

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Opponents warn that the cost of storing and sorting body camera footage could cripple police departments.

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a sheriff's office in South Carolina would have to spend about $600,000 to purchase body cameras for 250 deputies, and another $600,000 each year to maintain the resulting footage.

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As more cities and towns provide body cameras to law enforcement officers, more data will enable policy makers to better gauge the technology's effect on police conduct, community trust, crime, and privacy

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"Police Tools and Techniques." Police Technology: 21st-Century Crime-Fighting Tools, edited by Glen C. Forrest, Britannica Educational Publishing with Rosen Educational Services, 2017, pp. 12-28. Law Enforcement and Intelligence Gathering. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX7119200007/GVRL?u=pleasant_vhs&sid=GVRL&xid=cbde651c. Accessed 2 May 2019.

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https://www.policeone.com/police-products/police-technology/articles/483653006-6-police-drones-help-find-missing-Fla-man/

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https://www.policeone.com/police-products/police-technology/articles/480393006-How-technology-can-enhance-not-impede-police-situational-awareness/

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. Most patrol cars have a screen in them that can be used for mapping and pulling records, but they could be used for so much more, like tracking other LE and first responders such as fire and hazmat when you are responding to an incident.

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GPS AND GEO-FENCING.Think about your last police pursuit. Could you go back and re-trace your steps to search for a thrown firearm if necessary? Many modern handheld and vehicle radios have built-in GPS that can record your movements for playback later, but only if officers and their unions allow the feature to be enabled.

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Most CAD systems can download an address along with other information to the screen in the car. Now add geo-fencing capability that uses “virtual walls” to automatically pop information onto the screen as the officer travels through specific locations. This can include known drug hangouts, the location of a sex offender, or perhaps flag an area where police cars have taken fire in the past week.

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Geo-fencing also could help with personnel safety and incident management by logging when personnel arrive and leave the command post and automatically switching their radios to the tactical channel, letting officers concentrate on the mission and not the overhead. With compatible systems, even mutual aid events could be more easily managed.

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For example, there were 120 responders from multiple agencies at the YouTube shooting, but only 80 checked in at the command post. If a bomb went off or cars needed to be moved, how would anyone contact the 40 who didn’t check in? I’ve been on more than one rugged terrain search where a rescuer went home but didn’t check out, risking the life of the remaining staff who now had to search for two people.

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Imagine the benefits if your agency knew when staff arrived on-site, knew that they were on the correct channel and knew exactly when they left. How much easier would mutual aid billing be if you had an automated electronic log rather than a bunch of paper to sort through and collate?

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How many police unions fought the use of body-worn cameras when they came out? Humans are not recording devices and our memories are malleable and fallible. While an officer’s perception of an incident can be different from what is seen on a video, both can still be legitimate, for many reasons; angle, 2D versus 3D, shadows and so on. And yes, BWC videos have repeatedly been used to “set the record straight.”

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In fact, the video can be used to help with accurate report writing – another bonus. The majority of law enforcement executives interviewed by the Police Executive Research Forum are in favor of allowing officers to review BWC footage prior to making a statement about an incident because they believe that this provides the best evidence of what actually took place.

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Technology is evolving at a rapid pace and while some cops don’t like change, why would anyone not want to use a product that can give them a better chance at returning to their family after a shift, make report writing easier or ensure that their brothers and sisters can locate them when things go south?

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way to get it is to think WIIFM, or “What’s in it for me.” New technology can make your reports’ jobs easier, save them time, or give them a better chance at returning to their family after their shift. The technology you implement today could save lives tomorrow.

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https://www.policeone.com/police-products/police-technology/articles/476936006-How-video-surveillance-technologies-benefit-law-enforcement/