REALITY OF ROBOCOPS

Inside Scoop Into How Technology Affects Law Enforcement

Today, technology is embedded everywhere in our lives with one of the biggest areas being law enforcement. For instance, the Fishers Police department is soon to become one of the largest departments in Indiana to start using body-worn cameras. Many feel this is a significant improvement from where the police started before. This is becoming a common occurrence for departments across the US.

The Washington Post wrote, “In their daily work, [police officers] are using drones, license plate readers, body cameras and gunshot detection systems to reduce injury and bodily harm.” Indicating that in some of the many ways, technology is currently embedded in law enforcement.

Kevin Sutton, HSE High School’s Safety Resource Officer, has been a police officer for 23 years and an SRO for 12 years. He believes that the police have come a long way with technology in positive ways.

“Streamlining of DNA tests, tactical tools such as drones and GPS have made tactics safer and much more efficient,” Sutton said. “When I started [in] my old department we were still using paper reports.”

Decades ago, law enforcement did not have the resources available today like DNA tests, which are important to solving crimes that involve DNA left at the scene and more. Using DNA evidence in crime cases may also be an effective approach and lead to a greater number of identified suspects than the traditional methods. DNA testing is faster and leads to more cases solved in the example of rape and murder than the original methods that heavily relied on fingerprints and shoe prints.

Technology not only helps the jobs of police be more efficient, but it also assists in protecting the officers and citizens. The high-profile policerelated deaths of Black Americans resulted in citizens demanding body cameras for more transparency and honesty, causing the officers to own to their mistakes and take responsibility. However, there can be a negative side to modern technology. In the

Following the Story...

As technology becomes more prevalent, it has been determined that many of the Orb’s stories will now include social media updates. You can now read Orb stories on the HSENews website. The Student Media team will frequently make art connected to the stories on the website. The team also wants the stories to reach more HSE students, who are our target audience. The Student Media social media team will help by publishing the storyrelated art on HSE social media in order to increase the engagement with stories since HSE students use online apps like Instagram. Story by Xavier Dokes.

death of George Floyd, officer Derek Chauvin’s body camera was on, revealing Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe.”

The body camera was one piece of evidence from the act Chauvin committed, sentencing him to 22.5 years in prison.

The new technology is made to protect citizens and its officers, but when turned off in the moment during the murder of George Floyd completely disregards the main purpose of the body camera.

In addition, phone apps like Waze, a GPS map app like Google Maps, can show the location of the on-duty police officers. Kidnappers can dodge the police based on their tracked presence on Waze, making it harder to catch them. Technology is a tremendous help to the law enforcement, but at times it can turn against them in situations that involve criminals that know how to use the internet. Overall, though technology over time has improved drastically, making the jobs of police officers much easier and efficient. Story by Jordyn Grant.

“When I started [in] my old department, we were still using paper reports.”

- Kevin Sutton, Police Officer