1996 Initiatives to Integrate Technology into Community Oriented Policing – 20 Years Later

Abstract

Although the use of technology to improve community policing effectiveness has gained attention over the last decade, mainly due to the rise in the use of social media, it is far from new; already in 1996, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) organized a series of five regional conferences that focused on how technology can enhance community policing. Despite a very in-depth dedication to the topic, the conferences failed to consider how to pair the technological innovations with the ideas of buying hearts and minds of the public from the emotional angle. This chapter overviews the foci of the conferences and contrasts the decades old goals with state of police community relations 20 years later.