Is Law Enforcement Invading Your Privacy?
Is Law Enforcement Invading Your Privacy?
“It's no longer a conspiracy theory to say we are being watched and tracked nearly everywhere we go. Cameras capture our driving and walking patterns, phones track our locations and online habits”, but in reality is this true (Smith-Thompson)? While this is true to some extent, certain people can take this ideology a step too far and argue that law enforcement is overstepping its bounds and invading people's privacy with the help of technology. In truth, modern-day technology is helping law enforcement to become more successful and effective every day. With modern technology, law enforcement agencies can better protect their agents and officers and track down more criminals with greater ease, which has no negative effects on innocent civilians. Furthermore, technology decreases the likelihood that an innocent bystander will be falsely arrested. This means that technology is also helping innocent citizens stay out of prison which is a major issue in the U.S. today.
It is undeniable that in the United States today and all around the globe, law enforcement is getting more advanced every day with technologies that make finding criminals, tracking data, and keeping officers safe both easier and cheaper every day. The result of this is a safer society in which people don't get accused with false charges, or get harmed by criminals. As touched on previously, United States law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), SWAT, and regular state and town police forces are all using technology to aid in their jobs of discovering, locating, and arresting criminals. This majorly benefits citizens in four main ways. The first main reason is that modern technology keeps police officers safe, which allows them to protect the community better. The second reason is technology allows law enforcement to track down individuals that may cause harm to you or other innocent bystanders. Thirdly, technology also helps cops to collect data and store it which can be used to identify dangerous criminals. Finally, DNA technology allows cops and other agents to be more precise with their arrests, which means that it is far less likely for the wrong person to be arrested and tried.
One of the large benefits of Technology is that it enables cops and other officers to be safer on the job. One specific example of technology that keeps officers safe is wearable sensor technology which allows the wearer's health to be monitored in real-time by scanners looking at various biometric marks. The purpose of this technology is to track officers' health while out in the field, so they can make better real-time decisions that are based on their well-being. While this technology will be majorly helpful to police officers there is one main drawback. Currently, “although inexpensive and portable, (WSTs) lack the accuracy and precision needed to inform and support decision making” (Goodison, et al). This drawback seems deal-breaking, but with the current rate of technological development in today's world, this technology will be sufficiently advanced very soon. Another way that technology is keeping officers safe is by enabling law enforcement agencies to use technology to case active crime scenes. This means that instead of putting their own life at risk police officers and other agents can use advanced cameras and other instruments that alert them to possible dangers while staying behind the safety of cover. A prime example of this is when a homeowner called the police about a man with a knife. The officers did not know whether or not they would be attacked if they entered the home, so what did they do? They used a drone with a camera to fly into the house. Because of the drone, the officers were able to determine “that the man did not have any visible weapons on him” (Abril). With this information, they were able to make a better-informed decision and safely arrest the man. Finally, according to “Policing by The Numbers” the rate at which officers were feloniously assaulted since 1987 has only gone down by about 30 percent, while the rate of officers feloniously killed since 1987 has gone down by about 50 percent. This means that officers, although being assaulted less, are still being killed in a proportionally less amount than 35 years ago. From these stats, one can draw the conclusion that police officers have become safer over the years, and while this can not all be accredited to the advancement of technology, technology is still responsible in a large part for officers' safety over the years. All in all, this data and evidence have proven that technology has offered major advantages towards officer safety, but that's not all that modern tech is good for because it can also be used to help track criminals.
In the hands of law enforcement, advanced technology makes dangerous criminals easier to track. One prime example of this is that increased amounts of cameras allow cops to easily identify and track criminals. Nowadays, almost everyone has a camera everywhere whether it's the famously dreaded red light camera, the very useful dash camera, or the more and more common doorbell camera, which “in 2020 alone, law enforcement agencies across the U.S. made more than 20,000 requests last year for footage captured by Ring video doorbells” (Fritsvold). This means that in 2020 about 20,000 criminals could have been caught with the help of doorbell cameras, which are more common now in the year 2022 than in 2020. The use of technology is obviously useful for law enforcement to find criminals, but many people still have their doubts about whether they will retain their privacy which are reinforced by authors like George Orwell when he writes “‘Smith!’ screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreens. ‘6079 Smith W! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that… That's better, comrade’” (Orwell 36). From this quote, it can be inferred that Orwell and many others like him believed that technology would invade people's right to privacy, but since this book was written in 1949, there have been no incidents that have come close to this level of outside intrusion. Furthermore, while it is obvious that some privacy has been lost with time, it is more than made up for by the greater security granted. Finally, locating technologies like GPS, have greatly helped police officers catch criminals. One specific technology is the StarChase GPS. “A StarChase GPS launcher is mounted on the front of a patrol car and can release a GPS dart that adheres to a fleeing motorist’s car during a high-speed chase” (PursuitResponse1). This means that police can use this technology to track speeders and criminals fleeing a crime scene without endangering their lives and those around them by chasing after them. All in all, Technology has helped law enforcement find and catch criminals, but that's not all because technology also allows cops to use data they have collected to find criminals.
Modern technology allows agencies to collect and store data that can be used to identify suspects. In today's world with cameras everywhere there can almost be too much data, but with the use of facial tracking software, the data can be sorted through easily to find the needle in the haystack. “Facial recognition is a digital technology that NYPD (and others like them) uses to compare images obtained during criminal investigations with lawfully possessed arrest photos” (NYPD Questions and Answersfacial Recognition). This objectively is one of the most feared uses of technology by law enforcement and many people may be afraid of law enforcement using facial recognition to locate people recorded on a city's network of security cameras, but according to NYC.Gov “The NYPD does not use facial recognition technology in this manner. Video from city-owned and private cameras is not analyzed unless it is relevant to a crime that has been committed.” This means that as long as you have not committed a crime or are not a suspect in a crime, facial recognition will not be used on you. Furthermore, according to NYC.Gov, the police in New York do not use facial recognition to scan crowds or establish probable cause. Also, “In 2019, the Facial Identification Section received 9,850 requests for comparison and identified 2,510 possible matches, including possible matches in 68 murders, 66 rapes, 277 felony assaults, 386 robberies, and 525 grand larcenies”, so is facial identification is very useful for catching criminals, and very beneficial towards keeping the public safe (NYPD Questions and Answersfacial Recognition). In short, facial recognition, while scrutinized by the public, is very useful in helping keep everyone safe.
Another way that the public is being kept safe is with DNA technology. This is because law enforcement agencies are less likely to make wrongful arrests with modern-day DNA testing. All around the U.S. law enforcement agencies use DNA testing technology routinely at crime scenes to help create forensic reports.“The National Research Council concluded that DNA is the only ‘forensic method [that] has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual source’”(DNA for Police Investigations). This means that DNA testing is the most accurate method for connecting a piece of evidence to the suspect. Furthermore, while DNA testing is very accurate it is still not one hundred percent reliable. After all, “DNA evidence is far more reliable to eliminate a suspect rather than to pin the blame on that person” (Is DNA Testing Reliable in Criminal Cases?). This makes it seem like DNA is not useful, but on the contrary, this indicates that an innocent person is not likely to be arrested with DNA evidence, further decreasing the chance of a wrongful arrest. Finally, many organizations and people are using DNA testing to exonerate the wrongfully accused. “To date, 375 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who served time on death row”. This establishes that 21 people's lives have been saved by DNA technology. Furthermore, according to “innocenceproject.org”, these wrongfully convicted criminals have on average served 14 years in prison. In conclusion, DNA tech from law enforcement has helped to protect innocent citizens from being wrongly incriminated and helps police connect evidence to criminals.
With modern technology, law enforcement agencies can better protect their agents and officers and track down more criminals with greater ease, which has no negative effects on innocent civilians. In the hands of law enforcement technology also allows police officers to track down individuals that may cause harm to you or other innocent bystanders. Furthermore, technology decreases the likelihood that an innocent bystander will be falsely arrested. This results in a safer society in which people don't get accused with false charges, or get harmed by criminals. These results are mainly achieved through four main aspects of technology. The first major factor is that modern technology keeps law enforcement personnel secure, enabling them to better protect the public. The second reason is that technology makes it possible for law enforcement to find people who might harm you or other innocent bystanders. Thirdly, technology aids law enforcement in the collection and storage of data that can be used to pinpoint dangerous criminals. Finally, because DNA technology enables law enforcement officials and other agents to make more accurate arrests, it is much less likely that the wrong person will be detained and tried.
Works Cited
Abril, Danielle. “Drones, Robots, License Plate Readers: Police Grapple with Community Concerns as They Turn to Tech for Their Jobs.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 10 Mar. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/09/police-technologies- future-of-work-drones-ai-robots/.
“DNA for Police Investigations.” The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP), 21 Apr. 2020, https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/dna-for-police-investigations/.
“Exonerate.” Innocence Project, 2022, innocenceproject.org/exonerate/#:~:text=To%20date%2C%20375%20people%20in.
Fritsvold, Erik.“17 Types of Innovative Police Technology.” University of San Diego Online Degrees, 28 Nov. 2022, https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/10-innovative-police-technologies/.
Goodison, Sean E., et al. “Law Enforcement Could Benefit from Wearable Sensor Technology.” RAND Corporation, 2 Nov. 2020, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA108-7.html.
“Is DNA Testing Reliable in Criminal Cases?” Jennifer Horwitz Law, 16 Dec. 2021, www.jenniferhorwitzlaw.com/2021/12/16/is-dna-testing-reliable-in-criminal-cases/.
“NYPD Questions and Answersfacial Recognition.” Facial Recognition - NYPD, 2022, https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/about/about-nypd/equipment-tech/facial-recognition.page#:~:text=Does%20the%20NYPD%20use%20facial,crime%20that%20has%20been%20committed.
Orwell, George. 1984. Signet Classics, 1977.
“Policing by the Numbers.” Assessing the Evidence, 2022, https://counciloncj.foleon.com/policing/assessing-the-evidence/policing-by-the-numbers/.
PursuitResponse1. “The Constitutionality of Launching Sticky GPS Darts during a High-Speed Car Chase.” Pursuit Response, 31 Jan. 2019, https://pursuitresponse.org/the-constitutionality-of-launching-sticky-gps-darts-during-a-high-speed-car-chase/.
Smith-Thompson, Toni “To Reduce the Power of Police, We Must Protect Our Privacy.” New York Civil Liberties Union, 21 Sep. 2021, https://www.nyclu.org/en/news/reduce-power-police-we-must-protect-our-privacy.