6 WAYS COPS ARE GOING HIGH-TECH

6 Ways Cops Are Going High-Tech
By Chloe Albanesius, PC Magazine, 13 February 2014.

The Robocop reboot hit theatres this week, and while we’re not yet at the stage where we have half human-half robot cops roaming the streets, law enforcement at home and abroad are experimenting with high-tech gadgets and software that might one day be de rigeur for all those in uniform.

Just this week, for example, there were reports that the New York Police Department (NYPD) is experimenting with Google Glass. With many officers walking their beats rather than driving, will Google’s high-tech specs became their version of the dash cam?

Overseas, U.K. residents are no strangers to CCTV cameras on every corner. But while it might make it easier for police to track down offenders, the sheer volume of collected data - some 26 million images per day, The Guardian reported last month - has privacy advocates up in arms.

Not every police department can afford to experiment with high-tech gadgets, of course. But they have to start somewhere. Check out below for some of the futuristic ideas some departments are examining, and which might be featured in a precinct, squad car, or on a uniform in your neighbourhood soon.

For more RoboCop, meanwhile, check out PCMag’s interview with Martin Whist, the movie’s production designer.

1. Body Cams

Image source

For those officers who are not equipped with Google Glass, cameras strapped to uniforms - or body cams - might be the next best way to keep tabs on just how interrogations, investigations, and arrests go down. Police from Pennsylvania to Texas to California are experimenting with the technology, which - depending on the tech used - can be clipped on to belts, sunglasses, or the front of uniforms. Like CCTVs, body cams have prompted privacy debates, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had a largely positive outlook on them in an October report “because of their potential to serve as a check against the abuse of power by police officers.”

2. Predicting Crimes

Predicting crimes before they happen is more than just the plot of Minority Report. Companies like PredPol (for Predictive Policing) use technology to predict where crimes will happen next, down to a 500-by-500-foot area. PredPol was developed by mathematicians and social scientists at University of California Irvine, Santa Clara University, and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has used the technology, and PredPol quotes a department captain who said he envisions a time when police can issue crime forecasts like the National Weather Service issues storm alerts. Similarly, tech like Shot Spotter aims to pinpoint the location of reported gunshots.

3. Data Mining

In 2012, the NYPD teamed up with Microsoft for the Domain Awareness System, which uses analytics and footage from 3,000 CCTVs around the city to identify potential threats. While that might seem a little like Big Brother, the city said "the Domain Awareness System will be used only to monitor public areas and public activities where no legally protected reasonable expectation of privacy exists,” the city said. It also claimed that facial recognition is not part of the program nor is racial profiling. Former comptroller Jon Liu, however, launched an audit of the program in August amidst complaints that the program was targeting Muslims. But it does not appear that that investigation went anywhere before the end of his term.

4. Facial Recognition

One day, we might be able to slip on our Google-fied “smart” contact lenses, look in the direction of another human being, and have all their public details scroll before our eyes, Terminator-style. For now, police and other law enforcement agencies are just starting to experiment with facial-recognition software, which faces privacy as well as technological hurdles. It’s in use for personnel at the Sochi Airport thanks to a Palo Alto-based firm, but here at home, one of the larger tests of facial-recognition tech is going on in San Diego. As outlined by the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIR), 25 agencies throughout the city got 133 Samsung Galaxy tablets and smartphones last year with facial-recognition software. Officers need only snap a photo of a suspect with their device and it compares that snapshot to mug shots in the state-wide Cal-Photo law enforcement database, as well as 32 million driver's license photos.

5. Car Kill Switches

High-speed police car chases are common enough that there are entire TV shows dedicated to the crazy and dangerous antics of criminals trying to evade the law. That might soon be a thing of the past in the European Union (EU), where officials are reportedly looking to add remote kill switches to cars that would let police disable a vehicle from a control room, according to The Telegraph. It’s only in the planning stages (and still technically confidential), but the paper said the EU hopes to have the technology in all new cars by the end of the decade.

6. Drones

Amazon isn’t the only one eyeing drones. Police around the globe have cleared these small aircraft for take-off, and former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last year that “you can’t keep the tides from coming in” when it comes to the use of domestic drones by the NYPD. But not everyone is on board. State lawmakers from the around the country have moved to put limits on how police departments can use drones, including those in New York and California. Several drone-related cases could make their way to the Supreme Court, meanwhile, including one out of North Dakota, where a man was sentenced to three years thanks in part to evidence gathered by a Predator drone that local officials had borrowed from border patrol.

[Source: PC Magazine. Edited.]