the most promising public safety technologies for the 21st century

The Most Promising Public Safety Technologies for the 21st Century

Nicholas Tancredi

Recent Graduate Barry University Bachelor of Public Administration 2015

Independent Research

April 2015


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Abstract

This paper will discuss the new technologies that aid public safety officials in the 21st century.

Technologies from companies such as International Business Machines (IBM), Deliotte, ESRI,

Accenture, SST, including other high-tech companies will also be discussed. Case studies from

cities that use these new technologies, as well as being successful in lowering the crime rate will

be examined in detail. This paper will also encompass the necessity for humility in public safety,

especially when it comes to using technology. This paper will illustrate that teams are necessary

to make technology and social media work within police departments, especially in emergency

situations, such as the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing and the destruction to New York City

caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.


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Introduction

In the 1987 film RoboCop, murdered Detroit Police Officer Alex Murphy is “brought

back from the dead” when he is made into a cyborg by scientists from Omni Consumer Products

(OCP), which essentially runs the Detroit Police Department (Verhoeven, 1987). While

RoboCop is a work of fiction, public safety technologies have grown immensely since the

Millennium. However, since the Millennium, technology has increased on a large scale, to where

[we] human beings have exceeded the growth of technology far beyond what engineers during

the Industrial Revolution could have imagined, or what J. Robert Oppenheimer, the famous

physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, probably could not have imaged this high-tech

boom advancing at the rapid speed that it has in the past five years.

In this post 9/11 world, technology is a vital piece of the fabric that makes up one of the

defense mechanisms that safeguard the United States against foreign and domestic terrorism.

When the Twin Towers went down, the idea that the United States was well safeguarded against

terrorism was not true. In fact, communication systems within the Twin Towers, especially

between security officers in the Twin Towers were not well rehearsed when it came to a mass

terrorism attack, such as the one seen on 9/11. Communication between public safety agencies

and officers has changed immensely since then, especially since the rise of social media and the

mass use of smart phones in law enforcement and public safety communications.

Probably the most important part of technological advancements in public safety is the

humility among leadership. When Larry Godwin was appointed to Police Director of the

Memphis Police Department in September 2004, his first policy change was getting rid of white

shirts for senior officers, because the rank and file officers would refer to senior officers as

“white shirts.” Godwin felt that in order to make all officers feel that they were part of the team,


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both rank and file and senior officers needed to dress the same, in order to bring the mentality of

fighting crime across the entire police department (Phillips, 2011). Changing the color of the

shirts was only one of Godwin’s many achievements. His push on the IBM technology Blue

CRUSH, or Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History was one of the main reasons why

crime was reduced, and 324,000 arrests have been made since Godwin became Director of

Memphis Police Department (Phillips, 2011). This just shows that humility fused with

technology as a win-win situation.

Communication and Social Media in Public Safety

Recently, the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, and the destruction caused by Hurricane

Sandy in 2012 spurred the mass use of social media, specifically Twitter between the Fire

Department in New York (FDNY), and the Boston Police Department (BPD). The FDNY used

Twitter to stay in contact with the public during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. FDNY Social

Media Manager Emily Rahimi was “chained to her desk from October 29, 2012 until 6 p.m. the

next day” (McKay, 2014). FDNY’s Twitter account was never set up with the intention to stay in

contact with the public in disaster situations, however, that changed after two days from the

havoc caused by the hurricane (McKay, 2014).

Since Hurricane Katrina, social media became important in terms of communication in

New York City. Rahimi also stated, the past year has been huge for using social media during

emergencies. She discussed Hurricane Sandy, the Boston Marathon Bombing, as well as the Red

Cross in Kenya during the mall attack. Moreover, New York City has a policy for all their

members, including a customer policy from NYS Digital, which is part of City Hall, and is

almost the overseer of city agency social media managers (McKay, 2014). Rahimi is “trying to

stay on top of what other social media managers have experienced and tried to put together a


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plan” (McKay, 2014). Additionally, it is because we just never know what is going to happen in

an emergency, and the unexpected does surprise us. Lastly, Rahimi stated, “But just to

understand ways that I’ll be able to help people, whether it’s like Sandy or something that

another agency has experienced-ways to pass information more easily and more quickly”

(McKay, 2014).

In addition to what Mckay (2014) has reported on the use of social media during

Hurricane Sandy, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has stated that

Twitter was a “critical lifeline” for people that lived in the Northeast region of the United States,

when Hurricane Sandy left many people without power, as well as access to other news outlets

(Bowdon, 2014, p. 37). Scholars in the field of public health, communications, advertising,

including computer science have documented ways in which the use of Twitter was used

effectively on a local and global basis to inform the public about emergencies that range from

earthquakes to wildfires and to mobilize support efforts, which have brought attention and relief

to people suffering in acutely desperate circumstances (Bowdon, 2014, p. 38). Both the Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as the Red Cross have been using and

applying social media tools such as Twitter, which continues to grow at an evolving rate

(Bowdon, 2014, p. 39).

Moreover, when the tragic Boston Marathon Bombing that occurred in 2013, spurred

the City of Boston to use social media in order to keep in contact with citizens. During the

immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing, as well as during the search for the

perpetrators, Boston Police tweeted to the public, which became the official source of

information for everyone, including the media. The Boston Police Department had to use Twitter


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as a means of communication because numerous reports by the press turned out to be false

(McKay, 2014).

The work that Boston Police did with Twitter didn’t just happen as a consequence of the

bombing, it was a continuation of a community policing policy, and Twitter was a familiar

avenue to the department (McKay, 2014). It was in May 2012, when the City of Boston put

together its social media office within the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), and

a team that is well over 100 social media liaisons across 51 departments (McKay, 2014).

Bureau Chief of Public Information for the City of Boston Police Department Cheryl Fianduca

stated, “We took a leadership role in letting people know what was happening, which helped

reduce the fear because people just didn’t know” (McKay, 2014). Fianduca also stated, “They

didn’t even know if it was a terrorist attack or a chemical explosion, no one knew” (McKay,

2014).

Combatting Crime with the Aid of Social Media

Social media can also be used as a strong tool for fighting crime. This includes

Online Police Blotters: By using departmental blogs, police departments can post public details

themselves about crimes that provide citizens with information backed with the trust and

authority of their local crime-fighters. Digital “Wanted Posters”: This can be done with the aid

of Facebook and Twitter, where police departments can solicit information and assistance from

the public, which helps solve crimes. Anonymous E-Tipsters: This gives tipsters the ability to

send information anonymously through channels such as web-based chat, text messages, and

social media sites that enable the public to provide information without the fear of retribution.

Social Media Stakeouts: Patterns of tweets and Facebook posts can serve as early warning

systems that aid police departments to study and monitor developments.


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Undercover Online: Criminals use social media just as much as police departments do. Law

enforcement agencies have been able to infiltrate street gangs by posing as other gang members

on social media sites, where the gang member gains the trust of the undercover officer. This

allows police to intercept communication as it happens.

Informing About Current Situations: Many police departments are taking advantage of social

media tools to alert followers of problems and situations as they occur in real time. Fires, alerts

for missing children, and robberies are just a few of the benefits police departments have in order

to better serve and communicate with the public (ICMA, 2012, p. 13).

Additionally, the Virginia State Police (VSP) realized that they could not communicate

with the wide audience they wanted to about vital information concerning cold cases. As

Inauguration day quickly approached in 2009, essential information about traffic and logistics

needed to be discussed and planned out. People who were not from the area would need

information about where they were going, and were also unlikely to watch the news about traffic

conditions in the area. Due to the fact that standard communication methods through the

traditional news cycles were not a workable idea, VSP launched a YouTube page. They filmed

press conferences about the extremely complicated logistics that surrounded President Obama’s

first inauguration and within the first week, VSP’s first video was viewed thousands of time,

which prompted VSP to take a second look at their standard social media use policy (GovLoop,

2013, pp. 20-21).

They soon realized how social media could impact their mission and began planning for a

larger social media presence. Their Facebook page was launched in March 2010 to coincide with

a well-known anniversary of an unsolved homicide. Marking the launch of their new Facebook

page, and with the anniversary of a publically known event, VSP was able to generate 24,000


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fans nine months after the launch of their Facebook page, which led to several new leads and

attention to the unsolved homicide case. In addition to Facebook, VSP uses Twitter to cross-

promote different campaigns and frequently leverage the public for information on major events

and investigations (GovLoop, 2013, p. 21).

Geographic Information Systems in Public Safety

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become a valuable tool in the public safety

and law enforcement fields. GIS can aid police and public safety officials with tactical, strategic,

or even administrative plans. GIS is an essential piece of fighting crime, and should be included

in any crime analyst’s or police department’s toolbox. By fusing traditional law enforcement data

with demographics, infrastructure, and offender tracking, a public safety agency can use GIS to

transform information into actionable intelligence (ESRI, 2008, p. 1). GIS aids in crime analysis

by identifying and highlighting suspicious incidents that may need further investigation by law

enforcement officials, supporting pattern and trend analysis across various jurisdictions,

enhancing the implementation of multiple policing methodologies to reduce the overall crime

and disorder in a certain geographic area, integrating traditional as well as nontraditional law

enforcement data to enhance overall analysis, educating the public with visual information to

clarify crime concerns and enlist the community as an aid in this objective, and providing tools

and techniques to capture crime series and predict future occurrences of crime (ESRI, 2008, p.

1).

GIS allows crime analysts and police officers the ability to identify where crimes are

occurring and pinpoint what crimes are or are not related based on the research in the

department. This information allows investigators to target their efforts and line officers to patrol

and respond to locations while being more fully aware (ESRI, 2008, p. 5). GIS can also aid


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investigators in gaining an accurate view of a community to determine an offender’s travel

pattern, as well as the ideal locations for surveillance (ESRI, 2008, p. 5). Additionally, an

investigator can analyze data to examine an alibi or clarify whether a suspect was in direct

proximity to a crime. GIS puts together data from various datasets on offenders, crime, and

allows a sophisticated platform for analysis (ESRI, 2008, p. 5).

ShotSpotter Technology

Of the many technologies that are improving public safety today is ShotSpotter, which

was developed by the global leader in gunshot detection SST. What ShotSpotter technology does

is detect gunshots when they go off, especially in a violent situation involving multiple rounds of

ammunition going off. As SST states, “During an attack, critical time is lost as security or other

dedicated response personnel first to seek to establish the nature of the attack–and, indeed,

whether there is an attack in the first place. Video cameras and motion detectors simply do not

detect bullets flying through the air. Thus a coordinated active shooter incident may only evident

after damage is done to the substation equipment itself” (SST, 2014, p. 3). SST, Inc. operates a

24x7x365 Incident Review Center (IRC) at its national headquarters in Newark, California. This

facility is equipped with redundant connections to systems nationwide, as its sole aim is

monitoring gunfire acoustic events across the United States, including several countries, and

several continents (SST, 2014, p. 7).

According to SST, the way the detection system works within ShotSpotter, and verified

is, “Incoming detections should be vetted through a qualified, gunshot detection monitoring

center. Incident analysis should be conducted using as many evaluation parameters as possible,

including in particular: The acoustic audio signal (“waveform”) and what it sounds like; The

number, timing, and rhythm of rounds fired (e.g. how many shooters? Is this a fully-automatic


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weapon?); Recent events (e.g., has someone been shooting/hunting/sporting nearby?); Sound

propagation distance (e.g. at how many locations and at what distance was the sound heard?)”

(SST, 2014, p. 6).

When gunfire goes off in the vicinity of a substation, sensors and software triangulate and

narrow down the precise location of each round fired within seconds. If desired, immediate

actions such as aiming/directing multiple video cameras, locking of locks, raising of bollards, or

other on-site precautions can be immediately put into action At the same time, detailed data

about the incident is immediately sent to the Incident Review Center (IRC), which is a secure

data processing and alert qualification facility (SST, 2014, pp. 6-7). Immediately, a gunfire and

acoustic expert further analyzes the data, qualifies the incident, and sends a validated alert to the

identified team(s) that are responsible for threat monitoring, analyzing, and critical response. The

following teams can be alerted at the same time, or per a defined process, in order to put together

a coordinated and collaborative response to identified incidents (SST, 2014, p. 7):

• Corporate Security Control or Operations Center – Responsible for management of the

organizations overall security plans, escalation processes, and procedures.

• Systems Operations System – Responsible for monitoring, diagnostics, and maintaining of

the organizations systems, products, and devices.

• Critical Personnel – Alerts can be sent 24x7 to the necessary critical personnel via smart

phones, tablets, or laptops.

• Local Law Enforcement Agencies – 911 dispatch centers or other Public Safety Answer

Points (PSAP).


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Crime Analysis and Predictive Policing

In addition to the Boston Police Department using Twitter to communicate with the

public after the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013, many police departments are using the

Predictive Policing techniques to detect and deter criminal activity before it occurs by using past

crime analytics from predominately high crime areas throughout communities and cites.

However, these predictive policing strategies are partly accomplished with police using their

“street smarts.” Companies such as International Business Machines (IBM) have been pioneering

Predictive Policing technology, and two such case studies concerning the Memphis Police

Department and the Miami-Dade Police Department have used IBM technology to catalog and

analyze crime trends in both of these cities.

Within the Memphis Police Department, Director of Police Services Larry Godwin saw

this technology has a huge aid in reducing the violent crime rate in the City of Memphis. The

technology called Blue CRUSH; or Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History,

incorporates fresh crime data from sources that range from the Memphis Police Department’s

records management system to video cameras that monitor events from the street (IBM, 2011, p.

3). Although, Police Director Godwin could not have gotten his message of reducing crime

across the police department if he had not made some changes in the department when he took

over as Police Director.

As stated earlier in this paper, Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin immediately

changed the uniform policy, where all officers wore blue shirts, where as before he took over,

only police leaders wore white. Godwin wanted to change the mentality of the police department

in order get everyone in the department on the same page, and get the message across that every

member of the team had a responsibility to fight crime, including executive police officers (IBM,


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2011, p. 1). This is the most vital part in fighting crime, because fighting crime requires good

leadership, especially when introducing new a technology plan that has not been done before, or

been successful.

In Miami-Dade County, Florida, Robbery/Homicide Lieutenant Arnold Palmer started to

see the success with another successful IBM technology called Blue PALMS; or Predictive

Analytics Lead Modeling Software, which was used to crack cold cases, but also used to predict

areas where crime is most likely to occur in the county, and who committed the crime as well

(IBM, 2013, pp. 2-4). As Palmer stated in the IBM article Miami-Dade Police Department: New

patterns offer breakthroughs for cold cases, “I don’t need you to tell me that there’s going to be

a robbery on an afternoon shift in a particular neighborhood. I know it’s going to happen,” he

said. “I’d much rather you help me narrow down who did it” (IBM, 2013, p. 3). Additionally,

Deliotte, a consulting company, known for their articles on technology, published an article on a

new technology called Augmented Reality (AR), which is the “Overlay of digital information

onto a person’s real-world field of vision, aligning both real and virtual objects with one another

in a complementary manner” (Doolin, Holden, and Zinsou, 2013, p. 2).

The Use of Augmented Reality in the Department of Homeland Security

Augmented reality has many uses in law enforcement, but one of the biggest uses is

within the Department of Homeland Security, specifically to Border Patrol Agents and

Transportation Security Officers. Customs and Border Protection typically puts new Border

Patrol Agents through 19 weeks of training, which is the longest training period in federal law

enforcement, of which includes 200 hours of language training and extensive physical and

mental acuity tests. The agency’s new augmented reality-based system, Smartspecs, was

designed to increase the speed and effectiveness of this training (Doolin, Holden, and Zinsou,


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2013, p. 13). As AR continues to evolve, it will drastically transform how training is conducted,

which is good for areas that are high-risk environments. AR-enabled Interactive Training makes

it possible to simulate scenarios where trainees can see and interact with virtual environments, as

if the scenario was real (Doolin, Holden, and Zinsou, 2013, p. 14).

The Possibilities of Augmented Reality use for Transportation Security Officers

In the future, Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) may have the option of using a

piece of technology called Augmented Visioning Technology (AVTs). What these glasses could

do, is allow TSOs to view random screening numbers of passengers’ that would correlate to the

their unique Passenger Number (PN) that matches the record of their gate. A TSO would be able

to analyze passengers’ stride, speed and kinetic movement to their unique PN and overlay the PN

in the officers’ field of vision. The TSA Officer could then compare that information from ticket

QR codes to match each passenger’s identity. The process, along with advanced Explosive Trace

Detection (ETD) sensors throughout the screening area and an X-Ray system moving along side

a moving sidewalk, which all depends on a traveler without a carry-on to move through to the

gate in virtually seconds (Doolin, Holden, and Zinsou, 2013, pp. 15-16).

In a fictional case study written by Deliotte, flight security at Washington Dulles

International Airport once relied on scattered security cameras, a screening checkpoint and the

human eye. With advancements in video analytics made by casinos and social media sites,

however, it was AR-supported screening that eventually became the most viable choice for the

Transportation Security Administration (TSA). TSA Officers are now equipped with AVTs that

could function as a source for video capture and analysis. Additional cameras positioned

throughout the airport recognized the behavioral, gestural, and kinematic characteristics of


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passengers (Doolin, Holden, and Zinsou, 2013, p. 17).

Mobile Technology in Public Safety

Another huge piece of technology in public safety and law enforcement today is the use

of smart phones. “On average, people look at their phones every 6 ½ minutes, there are almost

over 1 billion smartphone users worldwide, 1 in 4 people worldwide use social networks, and

over 268 billion mobile apps are expected to be downloaded by 2017” (Accenture, 2013, p. 2).

After seeing these facts, it’s no wonder why police departments are starting to see the value of

using mobile technology in policing (Accenture, 2013, p. 3).

The majority of police officers are already using mobile technology in their personal lives

for photography, banking train timetables, news, social media, and so on. Therefore, police

officers expect the same level of technology in their work. For example, a police inspector for

London’s Metropolitan Police Service commented that when completing a specific police

operation, he was able to verify that all the actions needed by a specific protocol had been

conducted by searching for legislation on the Internet through a personal smartphone while at the

scene (Accenture, 2013, p. 5). The police officer stated, “I should be able to do that through a

police-issued device; it’s publicly available information and it’s easy to do. If I hadn’t used my

phone, I would have had to return to the station” (Accenture, 2013, p. 5).

In the 21st century, technology allows people to create “the art of possible.” It is a bold

vision for police departments to start using mobile technology in policing, but it must also allow

the public to use mobile technology to communicate with the police through “police apps”,

which allows the public to report crimes, to submit evidence, record lost property, create victim

or witness statements or simply allow the public to chat, “follow”, and hear from their local


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policing team real time (Accenture, 2013, p. 8). Additionally, the mobile technology capabilities

allow: Access to data and information from any location, Real-time, targeted analytics and

intelligence, Real-time evidence capture, Secure data transfer, Real-time communication, Real-

time collaboration, Location and activity tracking, Real-time management information

(Accenture, 2013, p. 8).

The Sheriff of Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department stated, “…to be able to do reports in the

cruiser and do paperwork without coming to the office allows us to stay in the community, be

more visible to the public and save lots of time and gas” (Accenture, 2013, p. 8).

Technological Responsibility, Social Media, & Leadership in the 21st Century

Technological responsibility is also a huge issue in this high-tech world, where people are

constantly posting stories, events, and news on social media sites. However, social media is the

equivalent to saying something negative or nasty in a public speech, and the speaker is not able

to take back what they said while in front of the public. Once an individual puts something out

on social media, it is out there for the public to see, and share for that matter. In an excerpt from

an article entitled, “Social Media and Citizen Engagement” by the Alliance for Innovation

stated, “Gone are the days when you could tally Facebook “like” and Twitter “followers” as

measures of social media success. Today, it’s not just about who you are saying to them and

whether or not they are sharing it with others” (GovLoop, 2013, p. 16).

This is especially true when it comes to criminals that post their criminal activities on

social media websites such as on the photo sharing website Instagram. Between 2013-2014

police have been cracking down on criminal activity posted on Instagram, and the arrests are

astonishing. These are some of the examples from Miami-Dade County, Florida: A Miami felon


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nicknamed “Crazy Goat” got cuffed on a weapons charge after posting photos of himself with

loaded guns; Months later, on-line snapshots helped police charge against three teens on

allegations of drug-fueled group sex with underage girls; Then there was teenager Karla Sanchez

who saw a naked overweight woman in the shower of a North Miami gym. She whipped out her

smartphone, snapped a photo and immediately posted it. Her not-so-smart caption: “The things I

see at LA Fitness. WTH!” Within weeks, cops jailed Sanchez, 18, on a misdemeanor voyeurism

charge” (Ovalle-Dovalle, 2015). Each of these South Florida cases stemmed from photos or

videos posted on Instagram, which is becoming popular for police and prosecutors as evidence

for convictions (Ovalle-Dovalle, 2015).

Additionally, there have also been many notable social-media crime cases, but Derick

Medina of South Miami topped them. In 2013, he shot his wife, and then uploaded a photo of her

dead body and confession on Facebook. While he awaits trial, he claimed self-defense (Ovalle-

Dovalle, 2015). Moreover, the social media website Twitter has also produced several notable

local crime cases, such as Miami-Dade Firefighter Gabriel Diaz who was accused of sharing

child porn on Twitter; he is now on probation (Ovalle-Dovalle, 2015). These cases however are

not the only public relations (PR) nightmares for public safety officials. Such incidents happened

within the Memphis Police Department when Larry Godwin was the Police Director, and for

Godwin, these were some tough times to get through.

Some of the incidents that occurred during Larry Godwin’s time as Director was the

arrest of Memphis Police Officer Arthur Sease in 2005. He was sentenced to 255 years in prison

for his role in orchestrating a conspiracy ring, where he and several other Memphis Police

Officers used their authority to rob drug dealers of cash, cocaine, and marijuana. A handful of


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cops gone bad was not the only PR nightmare for Godwin. In 2008, free-speech advocates

ridiculed the director’s efforts to unmask and anonymous blogger/Memphis Police Officer

known as “Dirk Diggler,” which was a moniker barrowed from the porn-actor character in the

film Boogie Nights. Diggler roused Godwin’s anger for launching a blog that allowed uniformed

patrol officers a place to voice anonymous discontent with the department’s leadership (Phillips,

2011). The Memphis Police Department Enforcer 2.0 blog criticized Godwin and other executive

police officers for firing certain police officers, the department employment and promotions

process, and other concerns (Phillips, 2011). Godwin made national headlines when he filed an

interstate subpoena to find out who Diggler really is. The lawsuit was eventually dropped, but

cost taxpayers $88,000 (Phillips, 2011). All in all, even the most experienced leaders are not

ready for what they may encounter on the job, or what the media may bring their way at times.

Moreover, it is important to remember that whatever the media, or even the general public may

say on social media sites, it is no reason to get discouraged, because public safety officials can

always use social media for something productive, rather than just spread more white noise.

When asked if he had any regrets, Godwin said that he was disappointed that he could not

get raises for his officers in four years, or getting a separate police headquarters building for the

Memphis Police Department, since the Memphis Police Department is located in the Shelby

County Criminal Justice Center. As Godwin stated, “We’re the 16th-largest department in

America. How do we not have a headquarters” (Phillips, 2011)? What Director Godwin has

shown at his time as the Director of Memphis Police was true humility, which really makes up a

public safety organization, or any organization for that matter.


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While social media and advancing technologies can be an exciting thing, one must

remember that they are only tools, and should be used for productive reasons, and that the world

we live in today is often disconnected when it comes to vital communication, and filled with

white noise, or basically, the junk that is floating around on social media, not the important facts,

such as those that the Boston Police Department and Fire Department in New York City put out

during the Boston Marathon Bombing, or the mass destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy. Let

us never forget about the importance of the human connection that originally made up

communication in the first place, instead of being overshadowed by the small things that get in

the way, such as the news media, the negative opinions of others, or even the doubt that one may

have when in a superior position of leadership.

I would like to take this time, and share a piece of writing that my father wrote for the

Jamesburg Historical Association’s 25th Anniversary Book, where he is a member. This adds a

great humanistic tone to the disconnect that people may have when they forget that technology is

a tool, and not a toy. This excerpt also reinforces the idea that while technology is great, the

human connection is greater. “There are some things, however, we didn’t “have” in those

“fifty’s”. We didn’t have to “network” because we knew how to speak to each other; we were

taught manners by our families; we didn’t have Amber Alerts because we had adults who looked

out and cared for us. What we had was shared with our neighbors. We never had to lock our

doors, and a night of mischief was catching fire flies. Boy, I miss those “fifty’s” (Tancredi, 2004,

p. 16).


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Conclusion

Technology such as social media is a tool and not a toy. That is something that everyone

needs to understand, especially in law enforcement. It is one very powerful tool that can destroy

one’s reputation, or get them in trouble with the law. Technology can aid public safety officials

in disaster situations, detect gun shots, enhance communication between public safety officials,

and has the future potential to save lives and detect danger. Technology can also ease

communication between government and the general public, just as it did during the Boston

Marathon Bombing in 2013 and the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Technology can also detect crimes that criminals report on social media websites, such as

Instagram and Facebook, which allows public safety officials to arrest criminals and solve crimes

that otherwise would have taken longer through pen and paper police work. Technology also has

the future potential to aid The Department of Homeland Security, specifically to

Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) and Border Patrol Agents. This advanced technology

called Augmented Reality (AR) is has developed s new reality-based system called Smartspecs,

which is designed to increase the effectiveness of Border Patrol Agent Training. Additionally,

the future advancement of Augmented Visioning Technology (AVTs) has the possibility to help

TSOs effectively increase the speed at which passengers go through security checkpoints at

airports by using a unique Passenger Number (PN), as well as Explosive Trace Detection (ETD)

sensors.

The most important thing however, is the main objective of the organization. Public

safety agencies should follow the same mentality that Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin

brought to the agency, when he changed the uniform policy in order to create an environment of

equality among police officers. As the Sheriff of Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department stated,


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“I foresee stuff that isn’t even imaginable today. Think back 150 years ago compared to what we

have now. Today the speed of development is unprecedented and all kinds of new developments

keep coming up” (Accenture, 2013, p. 14). While technology has vastly transformed public

safety procedures, a public safety leader must remember the words quoted by J. Robert

Oppenheimer from the “The Bhagavad Gita after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In

the defense of the human connection, public safety leaders should never forget that people make

machines and invent new technologies, and that the human connection, and the will to truly

inspire others is more important than the technology that one can create, and if abused, the

consequences can be huge, and without some type of regulation, one can do great damage with

inexperience of using social media, as well as advancing technology. We must not allow George

Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell, 1949) come to fruition.

“If the radiance of a thousand suns burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of

the mighty one…I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds” (Goodreads).


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References

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