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It’s no secret – significant tensions still exist between law enforcement and some communities, with frequent calls to ‘stop defending the police’ from activists who feel police are too quick to lash out. But a new survey shows that those opinions aren’t representative of the majority of Americans, and that more and more police forces across the country are now adopting mobile technology, which is closing the gap. We hope it will help streamline the work of police officers in the field.
A survey by public safety-focused software company Mark43 shows that most Americans support blue. It rejects the agenda and says it actually wants to give the police more resources. This is where technology comes into play. Companies like Mark43 are increasingly turning to new technology tools to help police keep the peace. Mark 43 co-founder Matt Polega said it’s a win-win, saying the officer “has mobile. He can take advantage of all the technology, stay on the scene and get information faster.” says.
And that flow of information is now managed in many cities by mobile apps designed to give police an advantage in the field. One program is a dispatch tool that helps police get a better sense of what they’re getting into when answering potentially dangerous calls. Information about the situation is automatically sent to the cop’s mobile phone to prevent him from jumping blind. According to Polega, “They could know exactly where they had to get to, and they could see the route they had to take. They could deal with it.”
But the company’s poll also revealed a huge gap between what most people see on the street and what law enforcement officers are actually doing. It is not uncommon to see , most often engaged in work-related applications. But 32% of Americans said he didn’t understand that cops use phones to do everything from data entry to dispatch. “The reality is that many of these officers spend a lot of time communicating with other officers and getting important information from headquarters,” Polega says. And that disparity creates serious misunderstandings and creates mistrust between the police and the people they serve.
Ultimately, most police departments say they expect field technologies like the Mark43-developed app to expand in the next few years. And he expects law enforcement agencies around the world to spend his $18 billion on new technology in 2023. We hope that new technology will lead to better policing and increase trust in law enforcement. And Polega says it’s already making a big impact, saying, “We’ve seen arrest reporting times cut by 50% and crime reporting times cut by about 80%. It will ensure that they return to the field to serve, not paperwork, but actually doing the work they signed up for.”