What the reviewers said about Police Technology

Police Technology, Prentice Hall, July 2005

Reviewer No. 1

Police technology is being spun out at a dizzying rate. What’s effective, what's Orwellian, what is cutting edge, What is pure fantasy?

Policing has always been information "intensive." And lately, it is increasingly technological, no matter what specialty you work; or niche of the business you inhabit. Too bad there isn’t a base course - or a basic text book - that lays out all this welter of police technology and ties it all together in an easily digestible comprehensive manner.

Ah, but there is. Police Technology, a primer on everything technological in policing is soon to be released by Pearson Prentice Hall. Studying its well laid­ out chapters chock full of details of the latest and greatest police technology, is sure to provide insight into the evolution, maturation and future implications of technology. This well-written book is truly a one-stop-shop technology overview; whether the student’s a basic Police recruit, a mid-level manager who now realizes he must be “up” on all this or become irrelevant, or a chief or sheriff who aspires to truly understand his or her agency’s technology plan and how to successfully manage it to reach important departmental and community goals.

Woven into a fascinating panoply of applications that make the law enforcement officer's job easier and his output more effective for the community he serves, are concise yet satisfying segments on Mobile Computer Systems, Computer Aided Dispatch, crime analysis and crime mapping. One can browse sections devoted to enhancing internal and external communications with technology, developing an automation plan, and institutionalizing technology change.

Concepts that are quite unfamiliar to most local police are laid out with crystal clarity: Pen Registries; Trap and Traces; the difference between Device Identifying Information and Call Content Information; Interception of Internet communications; Carnivore and Magic Lantern; the Patriot Act

For the techno-cop who revels in this type of reading, there are good portions of the book devoted to body wires and night vision devices, computer forensic examination, link analysis software, and the use of digital cameras to document crime scenes.

While some of these approaches are terribly captivating - such as futuristic use of electromagnetic pulses directed at an offender’s vehicle to slow his vehicle to 15mph so you can easily capture him - other segments look at personnel strategies that must be in place to direct and focus your new emphasis on technology development. For example, the book explains the process of Business Process Reengineering; that is, looking at your department’s organizational goals, processes, policies and technologies with an eye toward making these four factors work together better. Without this approach, misdirected and misunderstood acquisition of technology ends up not only cost agencies big bucks, but frustrating everyone involved in the process.

From your Vantage point, how many in your agency, regardless of their level of functioning, can explain concepts such as Passive Millimeter Wave Imaging (a way to detect weapons, plastic explosives, and other types of contraband), Facial Recognition Technology (pick a wanted bad guy’s face out of a sea of faces using surveillance cameras mounted in public places), Packet Switching (breaking down a message into very small units, individually addressing them and then routing them through a network) or the benefits to the officer on the beat of AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location)? This book simplifies these concepts and provides very clear explanations of terminology. In fact, at the end of every chapter is a list of “Key terms” encountered in the chapter. I you understand the terms, chances are you understood the concepts presented in the chapter.

For the not-so-computer-literate, on chapter clearly details the difference between a local area network and a wide area network, and fleshes out for the technological novice client-server architecture, intrusion detection and firewalls.

Important organizational issues addressed include the civilianization of work traditionally performed by uniformed officers, such as analyzing forensic evidence, and other technology related assignments that can be done just as well by non-sworn employees. Another discussion presents a less-than-rosy picture of technology implementation. What if department employees won’t or can’t use the technology? What if the managers or supervisors don’t know the technology and can’t effectively lead, train or supervise? How can law enforcement officers investigate technology related crimes without a basic knowledge of the technology? Where can agency managers find the talent necessary for technology development and implementation?

This book also takes a look at the bigger picture in terms of planting technology seeds in our agencies. The largest obstacle nationwide is fragmentation of local policing, creating many, many “technology islands.” Our agencies have different codes and terms, different radio frequencies, different and often incompatible equipment. With so many different agencies with different approaches, operating under different theories of policing and with varying budgetary resources, equipment and technology acquisition are completed on an agency by agency basis. This undermines interoperability and consistent maintenance of information in a database that everyone can access.

It is often said in literature written about innovations in police technology, that criminals are always five years ahead of law enforcement in implementing and using new technologies. Finally, a book aims to close this gap by educating our key leaders in dozens of technology applications which, if used in a web-planned way, can short-circuit this advantage criminals now seem to possess.

If day after tomorrow you were put in charge of development of new technologies in your agency, this would be the first “must read” you pick up. Not only will it help you to increase your familiarity with specific technologies and their best application in enforcement and in community policing, but it will also support you in convincing other key departmental players of the need to create a comprehensive agency-wide technology plan to manage change more effectively.

If there is one thing this book leaves the reader with, it is a sense of optimism that technology truly can play a key part in the movement for better police efficiency and greater crime control to protect our communities.

If you look at the table of contents, it’s hard to imagine that anything significant in police technology has been left out of this volume. From computer basics to wireless communications and network topologies, the book builds from the basic to the complex, but all is explained in easy-to-understand terms. Geographic information systems (GIS), communications dispatch centers, records management systems and specialized investigative software are covered in depth.

I truly have not discovered a book that this book would “compete against.” There are lots and lots of good books out on police technology, but most have a narrow focus. For example, I read and purchase a LOT of books on computer crime investigation and Internet investigation. While they, each in their own right, are very good and provide lots of precise information, none of them address what your book does. If one wants the “big picture” and an understanding of all the technologies that could be deployed, then your book is the ONLY one I could suggest.

Reviewer No. 2

The entire manuscript is a state-of-the-art treatment of police technologies, from the table of contents all the way though the individual chapters. Thus, the short answer to this question is, yes, the material depicted in the TOC is in fact coveted more than adequately in the individual chapters. It is an excellent and thorough overview of the broad field of law enforcement technologies, as well as a detailed exploration of how many of the technologies are actually used in the day-to -day operations of police agencies. Compelling examples are also offered to demonstrate what can happen when some of these technologies are not used.

In part, the manuscript is successful because the structure of the chapters is designed to clearly specify the learning objectives for each (e.g., understanding the use of public safety answering points) in advance, followed by very thorough treatments of each objective (in fact, most of the chapters are organized around the themes set out in the initial chapter objectives listings), and concluded with a recap-summary that reminds the reader why the material was presented in the first place. Beyond this, many of the later chapters on the use of individual technological systems (e.g., law enforcement internet usage) remind the reader of lessons that had been delivered previously in earlier chapters.

While on the face of it, this suggests redundancy, it is a redundancy that is extremely useful pedagogically because it forces the reader/student to recall materials from earlier chapters as a way of both reinforcing that new knowledge and understanding the new system that is being introduced. Thus, for example, the discussion of network spiders used to catalog search engines frequently takes the reader back to the earlier chapter on networking and the ways that data bases on particular servers are linked together on the internet, and how they can be searched using spider technologies. Then, this same information about spiders comes in handy when material is introduced later about law enforcement monitoring and surveillance of criminals using internet-based resources. Overall, my assessment is that this means there is good follow-through of the educational themes.

If there are weaknesses in this text (and I would argue there are very few) I would settle on only two. (Neither of these are terribly serious, and a counter-argument would probably conclude that these are actually strengths) One is associated with the emphasis on police technology, as compared to a broader emphasis on technologies within the entire criminal justice system. Now, to some extent, the manuscript touches on this occasionally by means of exploring law enforcement systems that are also used in other components of the American CJ system. As one example among many other possible ones, some of the general issues covered in Chapter 8 on the design and use of data bases could be applied to the corrections or judicial systems. However, given the attention to operating details of these technological systems at work within law enforcement, applying the same detail to other CJ elements would be prohibitive in terms of length and, possibly, the patience of the reader.

The matter or a reader’s patience takes me to the other minor criticism, which is related to the detail (which is, nearly inarguably, a strength of the manuscript as well). Some of the earlier chapters on the mechanics of computers, local area networks, other networks, and the like provide useful information, but some of the detail is a bit tedious. Later in the manuscript, a tedious Chapter 11 discussion of HTML versus XML hypertext programming really bogs down the flow of interesting ideas. In part, the author responds to this by using some of the basic information from early in the book (e.g., packet switching) to take the reader to technologies that can be used to track or monitor information (e.g. packet sniffers). It is not that the detail is not useful, but instead that there is an awful lot of detail in some of the more laborious explanations of programming, computers, and networking. It is possible that some judicious editing could shorten or eliminate some of this extreme detail.

The topics covered in this manuscript are explored in a balanced way. The lengths of chapters are fairly similar throughout the manuscript, and most all of them progress from general background on particular topics (e.g., the Internet) through more detailed explanations (e.g.. development of data warehousing resources by police agencies that can be accessed through secure Internet connections), and often into anecdotes or stories of applied settings that provide a setting in which various technologies or systems can be used appropriately. In my opinion, too, the scholarship appears sound. I am familiar with many of the sources cited, including some of my own publications. I traced the logic of several citations I was familiar with and found appropriate, interesting, and accurate interpretations of all but perhaps one of about a dozen or so thorough attempts to deconstruct the author’s empirical foundation and citation usage. Finally, as I have noted elsewhere in this review. my reading of the manuscript suggested the occasional of bit too much esoteric, technical detail regarding computer and network operations, but it is never “out of balance” with the overall presentation of material.

The material presented in the manuscript is absolutely current. There are systems mentioned in the manuscript that few researchers (or practitioners for that matter) have begun to consider (e.g., passive millimeter imaging discussion in chapter 21). Right now—at this moment as it goes to press - this is clearly a good thing! However, it suggests that in order to stay current and the author will have to be prepared to produce regular new additions, for at least two reasons.

First and most obviously, the technologies are changing and evolving as are their applications within criminal justice agencies. New editions will need to keep track of these changes and their impacts on technology usage and law enforcement impacts. Second, arid perhaps more importantly, the legal, policy, and procedural environments of these various technologies are also changing rapidly (e.g., the Kyllo decision on thermography handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court). Various of the most advanced technologies discussed in parts of this manuscript will also be affected by changes in the legal environment (e.g., some technologies like backscatter imagining are likely to be considered illegal searches under certain circumstances, but the courts have vet to define them), that will deserve (changing) treatment within the manuscript. Thus, practical and technical changes in the various systems discussed in the manuscript as well as evolving legal rulings will dictate future changes to be made in new editions. This is a key point in the sense that it is highly unlikely that a single first edition of this book will have a lengthy half-life due to the ongoing forces of innovation, changes in police procedures, and legal interpretations of the impacts of technological systems.

This book has no competition. In the first place, as noted above, I have been tracking law enforcement technology literature for six years, and this is the List hook-length manuscript that I have found that provides a comprehensive treatment of what is almost any account an extremely broad and deep field. There are miscellaneous journal articles here and there that touch on parts of some technologies detailed in the manuscript (e.g., mobile digital terminals, monitoring and surveillance technologies, non-lethal weaponry, etc.), but to the best of my knowledge this manuscript offers, hands-down, the most thorough, up-to-date, state-of-the-art coverage or current and emerging technologies in law enforcement. Ever were another book to emerge, it would be challenged to offer the same level of detail, readability, and comprehensiveness that this manuscript offers.

Reviewer No. 3

The material covered is adequate. A small number of significant topics have been omitted. Those are here noted. No superfluous material is included. The topics covered reflect appropriate emphasis and balance. The material (resources referenced) is both up-to-date and accurate. See annotated pages as indicated parenthetically. Not covered in the competition are several topics that are either cutting-edge (Chapter Twenty One does this very nicely), or are significant topics in law enforcement today. The latter are not necessarily subjects that come immediately to mind when one thinks about police technology. The way, in which these topics are integrated, reflects a very positive contribution to the literature. For example, Community Policing (pp. 30 — 39) is addressed in Chapter One as well as in the “Discussion Points” in Chapter Twenty One (pp. 787). This and its parallel philosophy, Problem-Oriented Policing (p. 34), are given appropriate attention. More in Chapter One would have been excessive given the theme of the text; less would have been superficial. Announcing the forthcoming eases studies (p. 30) very nicely reflects the author’s integration of these concepts with police technology.

Police Technology offers Key Terms, End Notes, and a Bibliography. Some or most of these useful features are absent in the texts I have here listed as competition. Some of the competition, including the “leading” competition suffers from a lack of current references. Police Technology has very current references in both the End Notes and the Bibliography. I believe this is essential, perhaps crucial, in a text about high technology. Whereas the competition has overly brief and/or excessively long chapters, Police Technology is very nicely balanced in this regard. Students will find this particularly desirable. Some of the topics that Police Technology treats separately are combined in other texts. This is distracting and confusing. Police Technology avoids this trap.

In summary, it is my opinion that there is no real competition for Police Technology. Police Technology is a well researched, well written, well-referenced, exceptionally clear and appropriate examples. Its author, while not yet well known, is a respected professional. If he continues to write, he will overcome the lack of notoriety in due course.

I would adopt this text because it is: (a) current (b) authored by a practitioner, (c) well written. (d) the examples are very clear and on-point; they will resonate with neophytes (pre­service as well as short-term practitioners), as well as authoritative academics as well as experienced practitioners.

Reviewer No. 4

The manuscript lends itself to a Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice curriculum or would also be suitable for a staff/manager training course for senior law enforcement personnel. I would strongly recommend this txt as part of any public safety management course, and certainly require it as a primer for a typical criminal justice curriculum. The content is remarkably extensive. Topics covered do give appropriate emphasis and balance. The chapter exercises will prove valuable to students by providing a “hands-on” experience.

The text of this manuscript obviously reflects a great deal of research and insight into the combined areas of Information Technology and Law Enforcement Management of Technology. All areas listed in the table of contents were appropriately covered and the correlation of each respective technology to is place in the business practice of policing was well explained. The writer covered each area in full and with sufficient depth that the reader/student should not only understand each chapter, but also understand dhow the chapters tie together and how to use the described technology for practical police applications.