Essay about Technology in Law Enforcement

In our research study we hope to show that the goal to Tasers it to provide law enforcement with alternatives to deadly force in order to minimize harm to both community members and police. We also want to show that no use of devices or techniques may be safe to everyone, but that we can't look just

The purpose is to explain the necessity and the alternatives to deadly force. Necessity of deadly force will include laws that have been passed by the United States Supreme Court, training methods and policies of Federal, State and Local agencies Alternatives to deadly force are less-lethal weapons that are used by law enforcement today, TASERS, pepper spray, bean bag guns and batons. Does deadly force need to be used against violent suspects?

Invented by NASA researcher, John H. Cover, in the 1960’s and 70’s, the TASER® has been widely adopted by police agencies as a non-lethal alternative to guns. While these devices have aided authorities in subduing suspects, it has also resulted in numerous unnecessary deaths. The general perception of the non-lethality of Tasers along with poor judgement on the part of law enforcement has culminated in the over use and apparent misuse of discharge against suspects when alternate options have existed. The following paper will discuss in detail the creation of Conducted Energy Weapons (CEW) and the TASER®; negative medical implications of Tasers and their current use by police enforcement groups; the laws which govern the use of

The use of conducted energy weapons in the police force has become increasingly popular since they were introduced only a short while ago. The TASER is claimed to be the safest and most productive type of less lethal force in use today, with a very quick recovery rate and no-long term side effects. The TASER has quickly taken over the harsh use of pepper spray, the brutal force of the baton and in some cases the firearm. However, the TASER has faced massive amounts of bad press and negative views among members of the public. Electro-muscular disruption has become a very controversial issue among society, some describing it as extremely

Officers endure about six months of training in the academy. After the academy they continue to train yearly. Although they train yearly many do not have the training in dealing with people that have mental health problems. Not being trained properly in the mental health can lead to the misuse of the officer’s weapons. Officers know who not to tase but sometimes have mishaps and tase people who are pregnant. If needed officers tase people who are on drugs but people who are on drugs have a much higher chance of death. The misuse of tasers by law enforcement can cause serious injury. Officers need to be aware of who they tase and how much force they use.

Moreover, to limit officer’s discretion on unjustly use of deadly force, law enforcement agencies need to adopt new practices and techniques when dealing with the public if deadly use of force is not required. Officers should adopt new practices of using the taser as a means of force. “Tasers [are] developed to subdue suspects with non-lethal means” (DeLone, Thompson, 2009, p.416). Many law enforcement officers praise the use of tasers as a tool to “increase the safety of both officer and citizen by decreasing the use of deadly force” (DeLone, Thompson,2009, p.418). Individuals who are not complying/showing aggression with officers and or have some sort of weapon can be easily subdued and controlled with the taser rather than being shot at

Most of us are familiar with the distinctive ticking of a TASER. TASERs, used by police departments throughout the United States of America, have become a go to tool for apprehending suspects without fatally wounding them. The first use of primitive TASERs dates back to 1960 and they have come a long way since. Such as advancements such as upgrading from gunpowder to compressed air, to more computerised TASERs that automatically cut off and collect crucial user data. With the advancement of technology, TASERs quickly became a more viable tool for an officer 's duty belt.

In this day and age law enforcement agencies use many different types of technology in order to help combat and fight crime. Because technology is forever changing this means law enforcement officials need to stay up to date with the latest technology. I wanted to go over technology that is available to police officers, prison guards, and probation officers. One of the many technologies available to police officers are fingerprint technology which provides him the opportunity to successfully lift prints throughout a crime scene. Once these prints are lifted they will go through the proper chain of custody and be processed by the officers local or state lab to see if there is a match. Another form of technology is if blood is found at the crime, any type of blood that is found at the crime scene of course it would be swabbed, for anything that is collected you would also need to

Would you risk your life every day for a paycheck? Maybe you’d be willing to sacrifice your own life to save someone else’s who you don’t even know. That’s what police officers do every time they report for duty. Police officer’s encounter some of the worst people in the world therefore; they require a resourceful method when suspects prove to be uncooperative or rebellious. Traditionally, police have used firearms, batons, oleoresin capsicum spray (O.C. spray), or physical force. Firearms are risky for everyone involved and most frequently lead to death. Batons are often seen as an excessive use of force and can lead to severe injuries. O.C. spray and physical force can compromise the officer’s safety and are not always effective. All of these issues have caused law enforcement agencies to look into the use of Tasers. Lt. James Clarke of the Smithfield police department states, “Using Tasers would be safer for both officers and suspects” (as cited by Chufo, 2008).

Just like the license plate reader, civil societies are worried about the instant identification finger printing method employed by law enforcers in nabbing offenders. The gadget/ system which gives police an instant access to database for cross checking against the prints they have obtained from a suspect enables the officers to pick any data and history on the subject from name, date of birth, social security number any other details about the person. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FDLE, has employed the use of the new technology going by the name of FALCON to assist in the criminal identification process. The system is able to compare the partial and palm prints obtained from a crime scene to the fingerprints in the data bank. FALCON is also capable of pulling and

Police officers still view law enforcement in the United States as dangerous work, and with good reason: the United States has a higher homicide rate when compared to other developed nations, and has a much higher rate of gun ownership when considered as a nation. With this in mind, I wanted to see how often officers actually had to resort to use of force due to the escalation of an incident; specifically, I wanted to examine Taser use as a part of less than lethal protocols in the United

Police technology continues to evolve and become better. One area that has seen a lot of recent attention is the use of less lethal weapons by law enforcement. Less lethal weapons are described as weapons that are alternatives to traditional firearms. Some examples of less lethal weapons are Tasers, OC spray, Batons, and hand combative techniques (CITATION). Less lethal weaponry still have the potential to cause serious bodily harm or death; however they are a safer alternatives to subdue non-compliant suspects than the use of firearms. The use of these weapons by untrained civilians may look violent in person or on video but they actually save lives and reduce injury to suspects and officers alike. As mentioned by (CITATION), officers have

For years, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) have adopted the employment of less lethal weapons to facilitate the safe arrest of non-compliant suspects whose actions do not justify the use of deadly force. LEAs embraced the new technologies that minimized harm to the officer, the suspect, and the public. However, controversy has surrounded these new devices in the war on crime. With recent news reports on the implementation of less lethal equipment causing injuries and deaths in communities scattered throughout the United States, the public has been questioning whether these weapons are safe and effective to use on suspects resisting arrests.

This proves that taser is an effective non-lethal weapon that can be used to subdue the criminals. Here are some possible advantages of taser guns, first, taser is a non-lethal weapon. As we may have already know, tasers are meant to take down the suspects without injuring or killing them. Also, it is safer to use in a situations where there are many bystanders in the scene, since tasers do not harm people around the intended suspects. This also leads to the second point of avoiding the usage of lethal weapons. So far, 1689 people have been killed by the police in a crime related actions (May, T. 2014). By promoting the usage of tasers, police officers around the world can lower the number of suspects being killed in the scene. Using the lethal weapon also dangers the suspects, police, and the bystanders, because firearms are a lethal weapon that can take away lives easily. Tasers also requires minimal training to use the functions, which also makes the officers and other security related people to easily use tasers in action. On the other hand, typical fire arms requires more training time to properly use them in order to avoid any accidents with it. Fourthly, by using taser, the injury rates dropped significantly. Taser have been used within law enforcement agencies from 1998, and from that time, according to the Taser International, taser helped lower injuries among officers and

The use of technology in the policing domain has been rapidly adopted over the past few years. However, it should be noted that the process of adopting and effectively using technology in law enforcement, begun more than 50 years ago. For instance, it become apparent in the 1950’s that computer would enable easier storage and retrieval of large amounts of data. More recently, advancement in technology has incorporated more sophisticated ways of transmitting and analyzing information, therefore aiding the law enforcement process (Button, Sharples & Harper, 2007). The police have found various aspect of technology useful; predominantly, computer crime mapping has been widely adopted and consequently received a lot of attention