“Crime is not an exact science, nor is crime counting,” said the interim Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan, reacting to the damning report released yesterday that describes an Garda Síochána as being behind on the times.
But science is an essential part of crime fighting, and and on that end, our girls and boys in blue have been left put in the cold. When 34,000 people who should have had their fingerprints taken left stations without a lemon-scented hand wipe, you don’t need to own the entire CSI boxset to know that something isn’t right.
“We all know from pop culture and TV policing dramas that intelligence gathering is a fundamental part of an intelligence-led policing service,” says Tom Conlan, a security analyst and academic, who believes the Irish service has been let down. Years of austerity and a lack of investment into an Garda Síochána, not at the fault of the rank-and-file officer on the street, has created an organisation that is “so far behind that they really need a complete overhaul to turn a relic of the 20th century into a 21st century police force.”
Yesterday’s report was particularly critical of the technology in use by Gardaí; PULSE, the force's computer programme, was first released fifteen years ago, and the Garda Inspectorate isn’t even sure that replacement parts are still being made. Worse still is the computer-aided dispatch system, 25-years-old, which doesn’t efficiently do the job of telling Gardaí where and when they need to be doing something.
“The Gardaí are so far removed from international best practice that school kids know when their investigating skills aren’t up to scratch,” Mr Conlan adds.
Other countries have had much more success in implementing gadgetry and tech into effective policing, in a number of different ways.
Social Media: The UK, in particular, was lauded for its use of social media, which has become an effective way for officers to communicate with the communities they serve. The PSNI and Met in London regularly interact with members of the public to inform and source information, while individual stations sometimes live tweet their days, to show how much work goes into running a modern police force.
Predictive Policing: The Manchester force has also been using technology to predict crimes, and has seen excellent results in reducing crime figures using a system that analyses behaviour and crime patterns to determine what hotspots officers should police. The programme was inspired by a similar one in Los Angeles that has been in operation for a few years.
Drones: Looking up might well be the first step going forward. While critics will point to drones as the harbinger of an Orwellian police state, drones will offer the vast potential to solve and prevent crime. Unmanned and small, the flying sentinels are already a fixture in several European police forces, with Greece’s huge anti-austerity protest movement seen as a driving force for that country’s early adoption.
Capable of providing real-time video, drones technology will become an increasingly common way of keeping tabs on crime.
Smartphones, Tablets and GPS: Laptops fixed to police-car dashboards were once a common sight in crime dramas, but the ease of smart portable devices is now more common in modern policing. The NYPD trialled tablets for 90 days, and found the tech quickly became second nature to the service. On this side of the Atlantic, Portugal’s police service has found using tablets to issue and collect fines has been very successful.
But not everyone is convinced; experts in information management have pointed out that there is evidence saying the more stress public safety workers are under, the less cognitive ability they can devote to interacting with technology.
Using location-emitting devices to monitor dementia patients in the UK has become a thorny issue. While some claim the practice is dehumanising, police say that one in four missing persons cases is related to a person with dementia, and that using GPS to monitor locations would greatly improve their service.
Biometrics: Perhaps the most controversial use of technology in policing is in the creation of a DNA database. Already in use in the UK, New Zealand, France, the US, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Denmark, and Portugal, using unique biological traits such as fingerprints, retinal scans, and DNA is rapidly increasing among law enforcement circles.
With technological advancements, what was once tedious and time consuming can now be carried out by cheaper, smaller, portable and readily available technologies. And as DNA databases and software continue to improve, reducing the backlog in solving serious crimes will become a basic part of any criminal investigation.
