Before I go into this week’s post, I want to draw your attention to a new project being undertaken by a college professor acquaintance who, like me, has worked extensively with law enforcement. In his Jan. 1 blog, he writes: Seeking LE organization willing to work virtually with supervised university students. The goal is to…
Category Archives: 2.0 Technology
High tech roundup: December 2011
If you came to this blog by way of Twitter or Facebook, you know that for several months I’ve been using the Scoop.It bookmarking service to aggregate news items about how police are using high tech. One reason I like it: its magazine-style format is nicely laid out, easy to read and easy to digest….
How free Web tools save one small-town agency from new Nixle fees
Mere months after Cops 2.0 began, a promising new service opened for business. Nixle, a one-way messaging service, meant that police who were still social media-shy could use Twitter, text messaging and other tools to send many different kinds of messages to their citizens — all for free. That’s changed. Last week, Nixle announced that…
Workers vs. widgets: policing in the age of high tech
Last month, Federal News Radio reported that budget cuts to the Defense Department meant choosing between high-tech firepower, and the troops who would become “irrelevant” during a war that implemented it. Could high tech make police irrelevant? The Memphis Daily News’ article about information and intelligence sharing among Tennessee law enforcement officers shows the ways…
Danger! Zombies ahead… and other security issues
Web-based traffic signs seem like the perfect solution for agencies that have speed enforcement problems. With the ability to change the sign’s message online — as well as receive alerts and data from the sign — no longer do supervisors need to send precious units to the signs to perform these functions manually. But in…
5 free resources for high tech crimes investigators
Last week I wrote about the need to become better informed on high tech crimes, the better to help victims of identity theft, cyberstalking, and other complex crimes. Fortunately, free resources exist. TLO Designed for agencies that can’t afford a subscription to Lexis-Nexis’ Accurint or ChoicePoint, TLO is rapidly becoming a strong competitor for both…