The Strengths, Dangers Of Technology On Patrol

The technology currently in daily use by law enforcement officers across the country has evolved greatly in the past couple decades. As law enforcement incorporates all of the new and changing technology into their daily routines, policies and protocols have to be developed to ensure that the use of this new technology doesn’t decrease our officer survival rates.

There is a wise and accurate saying that, “The only constant in life is change.” It applies to law enforcement as much as it does any other profession or segment of life. In our profession we must be aware of what changes and what doesn’t. We must learn how to balance the changes to evolve without increasing our operational risk.

Let’s take a quick look at some things that haven’t changed and then we can examine what has changed and how we should be incorporating it with officer survival in mind.

Things that have not changed

Anyone who has attended a police academy is or should be familiar with the Ten Deadly Errors. These are operational mistakes commonly made by police officers that have been identified as potentially fatal. Here is a list of the Ten Deadly Errors (in brief). We put those that need to be considered for this article in BOLD:

1: Attitude/Focus – When you’re at work, be there mentally.

2: Tombstone Courage – Sometimes it’s best to wait for backup.

3: Not Enough Rest/Fatigued – Slows reaction time down and lowers awareness.

4: Taking a Bad Position – For whatever reason.

5: Missing Danger Signs – Because we’re either not looking for them or too tired to recognize them.

6: Failure to Watch the Suspect’s Hands – Because the hands kill. SEE THEM.

7: Relaxing Too Soon – Just because nothing bad has happened doesn’t mean it won’t.

8: Improper Use or No Use of Handcuffs – Always handcuff before searching or transporting.

9: No Search or Poor Search – No shame and no embarrassment.

Search THOROUGHLY.

10: Dirty or Inoperable Weapon – It’s a potentially lifesaving tool if it works. Maintain it.

These errors have been taught in most police academies and by uncounted veteran officers to rookies for at least the past 50 years and probably longer. Some instructors add an additional two “new” deadly errors:

Failure to wear protective equipment, e.g. ballistic armor, safety belt.

Failure to maintain mental, emotional and physical fitness.

These errors can get officers hurt or killed. They are mistakes officers can make that prevent them from avoiding nefarious intentions from the “bad guys” we deal with.

What has changed?

Technology. As recently as the 1970s and early 1980s there were still officers working patrol without a portable radio. In a generation that is near-permanently connected by the presence of a mobile phone every waking moment of every day, it’s difficult to imagine a time when police officers and deputies patrolling would step out of their car and have no communications. What if they needed to call for help? They had to fight their way back to their car. Those were times when “alone” on a call truly meant alone on a call.

We’ve come a long way since then. Every officer now has a portable radio and many of them have GPS tracking plus unique identifier packs in them. Such developed technology means relatively easy communications, quickly calling for backup and having an entire communications system that allows for a lifeline. That fantastic and life-saving circumstance, all too often, empowers an officer to ignore the lessons about the Ten Deadly Errors and commit one of them: Tombstone Courage. Knowing that backup is at the other end of their radio, officers can sometimes step forward and engage in a situation when they should really wait. It’s an example of how developing technology can enable risky behavior.

Today’s equipment

Let’s consider all of the types of technology we see being used today for law enforcement. Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs, laptop computers), tablets or iPads, smartphones, electronic ticket writers/printers, body cameras, dash cameras, license plate readers…etc. Virtually every one of those technologies helps officers do their jobs in a more time efficient fashion.

In “the good old days” an officer would have to call in on a radio to give a dispatcher identifying information on a subject or vehicle to make a request for various bits of information and then wait to get it back. While he waited, he could be writing a ticket. Where did he do that? Short of having a portable radio, he did it sitting in the driver’s seat of his patrol vehicle—an easy to find, easy to target, easy to engage position should the person he stopped turn out to have evil intentions. If the officer saw the subject exit his vehicle, then reaction time was increased, thereby increasing the officer’s chances of prevailing in an ugly situation. There are other positions that would permit this, such as behind the patrol vehicle, on the passenger side, viewing the target vehicle over the roof, below the lightbar or through windows. The driver’s seat provided another barrier and greater distance from the potential threat. In today’s world of MDTs, being away from that link for information may be impractical. What if you have an electronic ticket writer though? What if it’s wirelessly connected to your MDT or other data source so you don’t have to stay in your patrol vehicle?

What are you looking at?

Taking a bad position can happen. Which position is a bad position is different from stop to stop, call to call, moment to moment. The challenge that is sometimes presented with any handheld electronic device (or any other device that requires us to spend too long looking at a display screen) is that it takes our eyes off the subject we’re dealing with.

To avoid committing Deadly Errors 5 and 6, we have to keep our eyes on the potential bad guy. Obviously we can’t do that 100 percent of the time, but it doesn’t help us if we’re engaged in activities that are constantly—and for longer periods of time—taking our eyes off of a potential threat. If you’re not looking at a potential threat, then you won’t see anything they do that indicates nefarious intent.

If your attention is diverted elsewhere, then the focus you can maintain on their hands (those things they’ll use to try to kill or harm you) is minimized, increasing your risk.

Stay alert

For most officers, when you are in “engagement” mode, you’re alert and paying attention, making contact, gathering information, reading body language, listening to what’s being said and how. Once you’ve completed that initial contact and assessment, you go back to your patrol vehicle maybe to check a subject for any open warrants or maybe to write a speeding ticket. Once you are back in your patrol vehicle working on your MDT and firing up that e-citation writer, where’s your mental outlook? Are you still on alert? Are you still paying attention? Or are you back in your comfortable and safe environment, relaxing because the potentially dangerous first contact is complete?

Think about how many things in your day on patrol take your eyes off a potential bad guy or developing bad situation: MDT, e-citation writer, smartphone, and any other tool that is handheld and that we have to concentrate on to use properly. That’s not to say that technology is bad for us because any increased risk is off-set by the empowerment of faster information retrieval and increased versatility in the patrol vehicle.

The dash cam, body cam, portable radio, MDT and all other technology supports us and helps us to do our job more efficiently. That said, every piece of technology should have Proper Use Protocols attached. Nothing should increase our risk on the street…it’s too high already.