Police Methods Turning High-Tech
Sonar, computer-assisted accident reconstruction, computer crime units, and a regional database are among the technologies police in Macomb County, Mich., have been using to improve safety in the county, which has a broad commitment to using police technology.
Police say the tools made available to them are improving police work, and large Detroit suburbs such as Sterling Heights are seeing improvements, with a 0.4 percent decline in crime and a drop in total numbers of murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, larcenies, car thefts, and arsons in the county.
While traditional police work is still required, the new technologies can in many cases save a lot of working time for police officers. Accident reconstruction with infrared mapping and data collection allows state police Sgt. Tim Brown to more quickly and accurately measure the road’s edges, lane lines, gouges, debris, scuff marks, and so on.
Data from the sergeant’s mobile device is then put into a computer that produces a scale drawing of the scene, which leads to the production of a full report that can be used to support a prosecution.
In 200 reconstructions Brown has done, all but one led to someone being bound over for trial or convicted.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Detroit News (09/19/03) P. 5D; Cardenas, Edward L.; Keenan, Tim.
