For Detective Joshua Lawrence, combining mobile technology and data integration has become “a bit like a ‘Field of Dreams.’” His agency designed and built it, and early successes are coming in, he said.
Lawrence, who served in the U.S. Army Reserve and has a background in military intelligence, is a homicide detective at the Modesto Police Department, an agency with over 200 sworn officers, in the Central Valley region of California. He also assists with the implementation of new technologies in his department.
For decades, law enforcement has been at the vanguard of using the latest portable technologies to increase efficiency, improve transparency and enhance officer safety.
Today’s patrol officers and their mobile office – the squad car – are typically equipped with radios and electronic control devices, particularly TASERs, as well as body cameras, dashboard cameras and GPS tracking devices. Some patrol cars have built-in mobile automated license plate readers (ALPRs). Most officers use onboard laptops with computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management system (RMS) software for communication and data access. Many also use agency-issued tablets and smartphones.
But the high-tech tools help little when information is stored in siloed data systems that don’t necessarily communicate with each other, said Lawrence. That’s why Modesto PD recently invested in Peregrine, one of the leading data integration systems. The software collects, analyzes and processes data gathered by different vendor devices as well as other data sources for easy access by agency personnel, especially officers in the field.
Integration systems such as Peregrine “work as a unified platform by bringing data from different sources together,” said Jacob Cramer, senior researcher for policing analytics with RTI International, an independent, multidisciplinary think tank.
For a law enforcement agency, it means that instead of searching several dozen different databases, employees can now use one single search bar and sign-on and receive results gathered from multiple databases. This not only saves time, it also gives officers information in a simplified format that they may have missed otherwise.
Having all the relevant data integrated and available at their fingertips is particularly “pivotal for patrol officers,” said Thaddeus Johnson, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
While detectives and specialized units typically receive a lot of intelligence, patrol officers are often out there by themselves dealing with the many unknowns of a call, said Johnson, who is also a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and a former police officer.
That’s why “we have to give patrol officers as much information as possible to help them make sound decisions, for their own safety and the citizens’ safety,” he said.
The unknowns play out “in the most routine situations that sometimes end up being the most dangerous,” like a traffic stop, said Lawrence. Typically, at the beginning of a traffic stop, the officer only has a license plate number and might be able to tell how many people are in the car. But with a data integration platform like Peregrine, the officer types in the license plate number “pretty much like in a Google-style search bar,” he said.
The system then generates a detailed profile of the vehicle based on various available data sources: license plate readers from different vendors and jurisdictions; records of possible arrests and citations; reports or field interviews associated with the vehicle.
According to Lawrence, just being able to get a quick snapshot of the vehicle history helps a patrol officer make decisions such as, “From which side do I approach the vehicle? Do I need to get a second officer on the scene before I approach it?”
Fast and seamless access to data can also help increase efficiency in policing. Integrated data systems allow field officers and investigators to track criminal activity and identify trails and patterns, said Johnson.
In the case of police chases and vehicle pursuits, for example, agencies that have leveraged technology, intel and data often manage to follow individuals to the chop shop, and “instead of just making an arrest for a stolen vehicle, they are able to shut down a major criminal operation,” Johnson continued.
SUCCESS BREEDS DETERRENCE
Lawrence, of the Modesto PD, shared a recent example of where the use of multiple technology resources, combined with data integration, led to a swift resolution. Officers received a call about an assault with a deadly weapon in downtown Modesto. The suspect fled on foot after dropping the gun. Dispatch had only a limited description of the suspect.
At the time the department’s aircraft, Sky 1 – a GippsAero GA8 single-engine utility plane – happened to be in the air. One of the officers on the plane accessed city cameras that had captured the incident, showing the suspect in a shirt with a distinct pattern. The air unit immediately sent the information to patrol officers on the ground, who were able to quickly locate the suspect and take him into custody.
Research suggests these types of success stories also strengthen the deterrence mechanism. “A big part of deterrence is not just swiftness, it’s also certainty,” said Johnson, adding that the new holistic technologies increase efficiency at investigating crimes and collecting evidence to build stronger cases in court. “That is the certainty aspect,” he explained.
EMPOWERING OFFICERS WITH TECH TOOLS
The use of technology and data integration may also have a positive internal effect. In a time when law enforcement agencies across the country are struggling to fill their ranks, technology can help compensate for staff shortages.
Investing in smart and mobile technologies is “a force multiplier,” said Lawrence. “One officer empowered by a handful of tech tools can handle the tasks of two officers without tech support.”
A strong focus on technology integration can also serve as a recruiting tool and change the population of people seeking a career in law enforcement, said Johnson. There may be more civilians with education and skills in data management and analysis who can help fill the gaps and train sworn staff, he added.
“If we want more women and more people of color in the police force, this may be an opportunity to bring them in,” Johnson said.
While the growing use of mobile technology and integrated data systems may increase patrol efficiency, improve safety for officers and civilians, and enhance transparency and accountability, there are also risks, said Johnson.
They include “Big Brother” type fears of oversurveillance and violation of privacy rights. Another concern is cognitive overload. This can happen when technology, designed to help officers with real-time decision-making, generates so much information that it becomes a distraction.
Cramer, of RTI International, said technology integration is still a new space, “but most integration vendors are very intentional about how they present the data they pull together, depending on who the intended users are” – detectives, crime analysts or field officers.
To curb concerns about data control and data retention, especially as AI-enabled technologies become more common in policing, Cramer said agencies, vendors and regulators “need to work together to set clear and reasonable guidelines and guardrails.”
Homicide detective Lawrence said the Modesto Police Department is committed to providing comprehensive education and robust training about the newest integrated technologies – training that is scenario-based, hands-on and conducted alongside instructors from vendors like Peregrine.
“We want to make sure our street officers are highly skilled and motivated, so when we keep deploying these tech tools, officers will use them to make our city safer,” said Lawrence – and the Field of Dreams continues to expand.
