The Utilization of Mobile Technology for Crime Scene Investigation in the San Francisco Bay Area

The research presented aims to explore factors affecting the decision to adopt a mobile crime scene investigation application in police departments throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. To accomplish this goal, the mobile technology acceptance model was used in designing a survey for data collection. This model utilizes four categories to interpret the factors that influence a police officer’s decision to accept or reject mobile technologies: performance, security and reliability, management style, and cognitive acceptance. Nine police departments were sampled through a series of in-person and over-the-phone interviews to obtain data regarding factors affecting the adoption of a mobile crime scene investigation application. Results suggest that if a mobile crime scene investigation application were made available, a vast majority of the police departments in the Bay Area would implement this new technology

Improving health and public safety through knowledge management

This paper reports on KM in public healthcare and public safety. It reflects the experiences of the author as a CIO (Chief Information Officer) in both industries in Australia and New Zealand. There are commonalities in goals and challenges in KM in both industries. In the case of public safety a goal of modern policing theory is to move more towards intelligence-driven practice. That means interventions based upon research and analysis of information. In healthcare the goals include investment in capacity based upon knowledge of healthcare needs, evidence-based service planning and care delivery, capture of information and provision of knowledge at the point-of-care and evaluation of outcomes. The issue of knowledge management is explored from the perspectives of the user of information and from the discipline of Information Technology and its application to healthcare and public safety. Case studies are discussed to illustrate knowledge management and limiting or enabling factors. These factors include strategy, architecture, standards, feed-back loops, training, quality processes, and social factors such as expectations, ownership of systems and politics

Officer Perceptions of the Impact of Mobile Broadband Technology on Police Operations

Research examining police departments' use of technology is underdeveloped relative to other areas of policing. This gap in the literature is troubling as policing models are becoming more data-driven and thus, relying more heavily on information technologies. Arguably, the most commonly utilised technology in policing practice, and examined in policing research, has been mobile computers. However, there has been little insight into the technological advancement in data communications that directly influence the functionality of mobile computers. This research seeks to inform this shortcoming by examining a police department that implemented a dedicated wireless mobile broadband system. A mixed-methods approach is employed within a medium-sized department in the northeast region of the USA. Survey data were gathered from 76 uniformed police personnel. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key personnel to further contextualise survey results. Survey results suggest tentative support for improved time savings and execution of job tasks after the implementation of wireless broadband. Perceptions of mobile broadband impacts on information flow, quality, and accessibility appear positive. Considerations for future research and study limitations are discussed

Emergency Messaging to General Public via Public Wireless Networks

Warnings to the broad population in an emergency situation, irrespective of location and condition, is a public policy responsibility. Public wireless networks offer now the opportunity to deliver emergency warnings in this way with explanations, because in many countries the mobile penetration rates are higher than any other access form .The paper summarizes the analysis of the selection process between Short messaging services (SMS) and Cell Broadcast messaging in the context of Denmark based on end user requirements and stakeholder roles. It demonstrates the many technical, cost-benefit and other trade-offs needed in supporting the population now with a dependable and wide-spread technology.SMS;cell broadcast (CB);emergency warnings;public wireless networks

Wireless Broadband for Municipal Police: Evaluating Clearance Times of Calls for Service

Though research has explored impacts of mobile computing and information technology on police operations, the literature lacks exploration of large-bandwidth data-sharing technologies that enhance the utility of mobile computing terminals. As part of a federally funded project, the present study employs a longitudinal pre- and postdesign utilizing 7 years of computer-aided dispatch data from a medium-sized municipal police department in the New England region. Pooled time series analyses are employed to examine the effect of wireless broadband implementation on clearance time of calls for service. Findings offer tentative support that clearance times for service calls decreased with the implementation of a wireless broadband network. Implementation did not appear to generate differential effects in areas that had experienced past challenges with cellular communication signals. Implications are provided, with an emphasis on the development of additional knowledge on technological evaluations

Impact of Mobile Broadband Data Access on Police Operations: An Exploratory Case Study of One Medium-Sized Municipal Police Department

As used in this study, “mobility” refers to “an inherent ability to move about,“ and “mobile computing” is a generic term that refers to the functional capabilities possible for end users as they complete tasks from various physical locations. “Broadband” refers to the relatively wide bandwidth characteristics of the wireless transmission medium and its corresponding ability to support multiple users and/or transport suitable quantities of data. “Mobile broadband” is used as a generic term to collectively refer to both terms in the context of the aggregate capabilities made possible through their use compared to other available mobile solutions and/or data. This study notes the lack of public-safety access to wireless broadband data, given resource limitations and a lack of independent evidence that would justify procurement of such technologies for police work. The current study’s deployment and assessment of this technology involved its use by the Brookline Police Department (BPD). Overall, the semi-structured interviews suggest that the wireless broadband technology was implemented with minimal difficulties and produced a number of perceived benefits for the BPD. The most direct benefit was the ease with which departmental technologies could be managed. Additional benefits were associated with increased access to timely information, increased information flow, and increased quality of reports. Structured interviews indicated that a few weeks of training sessions and ongoing informal bulletin and email disseminations were needed to overcome skepticism about the transition to wireless broadband. Most of the uniform personnel did not oppose the implementation nor did they perceive that the department was opposed to the transition. 39 tables, 3 figures, 93 references, and appended methodological details and supplementary data.National Institute of Justice (NIJ), US Department of Justice, Grant Number: 2010-IJ-CX-K02

State criminal justice telecommunications (STACOM). Volume 3: Requirements analysis and design of Texas criminal Justice Telecommunications Network

For abstract, see N78-16218

The impact of mobile technology on a UK police force and their knowledge sharing

The paper discusses an evaluation study that investigates the impact of mobile technology on a UK police force and on knowledge sharing processes. An empirical, ethnographic approach to the research was adopted, using a mixed method approach of focus groups, questionnaires, observational ‘work shadowing’ and interviews with a total of 42 staff involved in a trial of mobile technology. The findings from the various methods are consistent, suggesting that mobile technology has a positive impact on policing and knowledge sharing. The timeliness of information improved, increasing the availability of information for decision-making. Reductions in information overload were apparent due to mobile technology providing greater control over information. There was a positive impact on knowledge sharing in the course of operational duties. Information and knowledge could be shared more quickly with officers in the field; and mobile technology provided a new avenue for keeping each other up to date with events. The paper contributes towards an understanding of the upcoming concept of ‘mobile knowledge management’ and offers a set of recommendations to manage the possible long-term risk of mobile technology on knowledge sharing

Network layer access control for context-aware IPv6 applications

As part of the Lancaster GUIDE II project, we have developed a novel wireless access point protocol designed to support the development of next generation mobile context-aware applications in our local environs. Once deployed, this architecture will allow ordinary citizens secure, accountable and convenient access to a set of tailored applications including location, multimedia and context based services, and the public Internet. Our architecture utilises packet marking and network level packet filtering techniques within a modified Mobile IPv6 protocol stack to perform access control over a range of wireless network technologies. In this paper, we describe the rationale for, and components of, our architecture and contrast our approach with other state-of-the- art systems. The paper also contains details of our current implementation work, including preliminary performance measurements