Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 121In operational terms, police forces in Britain are at the forefront of the use ofinformation technology to support all aspects of their service delivery. 319 Thisdevelopment has been labelled e-policing and is strongly supported by the government.E-policing provides information to officers through mobile computing. In police terms,this means immediate access to police databases through multiple technologies, and isarguably an efficient use of resources.To better understand the implications of technology upon British policing we can referto a key study from Canada. 320 The information technology supported auditing,monitoring, and managing risk. 321 However, the reporting system curbed individualofficers' discretion while supervision of their activities intensified. The study concludedthat the use of information and communication technologies changed the structuralaspects of policing by limiting individual discretion, levelling hierarchies andquestioning traditional divisions of labour. Traditional police command and controlstructures were replaced by mechanisms that – through surveillance - regulated policeconduct. 322Apart from issues relating to the transformation of police culture and operations, weshould also consider the fact that technologies may fail. When this happens in thepolicing environment, the consequences are hazardous and expensive. A study of theuse of technology in the 1970s and 1980s reported disappointing results of varioustechnological innovations such as computer-aided dispatch systems, attempts to reduceresponse time, car locator and tracking systems, crime mapping techniques, andmanagement information systems, all of which failed to reach expectations and in someways exacerbated original problems. The study concluded that new technologies haveless positive effects on police practices than their proponents predict. 323It is fair to say that information technologies are employed not only because of theirfunctions, but also because of the image that the police seek to transmit. Such anapproach can result in costly endeavours that inhibit both cost recovery and theachievement of stated objectives.Toward the End of DiscretionThe strength of the police mandate is contingent upon the relationship officers havewith a community. Technology can become a burden that endangers the essence ofpolicing by framing a one-dimensional view of the world. It is possible that police workdoes not have the close affinity with technology that one might imagine.The administration of order is an act of peacekeeping that depends chiefly on discretionand common sense; these attributes open up a range of possibilities for theadministration of order. 324 Notable exceptions aside, the British police have a traditionof restraint in the act of maintaining public order – a fundamental characteristic that the319 Povey, K. (2001). Open All Hours. London, HMIC: 193.320 Ericson, R. V. and K. D. Haggerty (1997). Policing the risk society. Toronto ; Buffalo, University of TorontoPress.321 Ibid.322 Ibid.323 Manning, P. K. (1997). Police work : the social organization of policing. Prospect Heights, Ill., Waveland Press.324 Davis, K. (1969). Discretionary Justice. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press.