NCJ Number
81328
Journal
Medicine Science and the Law Volume: 22 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1982) Pages: 2-15
Date Published
1982
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This discussion of recent advances in police technology in Great Britain considers such areas as search and detection, communications, the Police National Computer, the development of the Metropolitan Police communications network, and the use of helicopters.
Abstract
Microwave links have made police communication simpler and speedier, and personal radios capable of communication in coded digital mode can be used for short range. Thermal imaging equipment has been particularly successful in rural areas in identifying humans and animals in remote and wooded areas by picking up the heat generated by their bodies. X-ray technology has proven useful in examining the contents of closed containers. The Police National Computer is available to all police forces in England, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man, enabling police to obtain information on the following indices: vehicle owners, stolen vehicles, criminal names, wanted and missing, disqualified drivers, and fingerprints. A computer-assisted storage and retrieval device for graphic fingerprints images together with associated digital data has been used at New Scotland Yard since April 1977. A planned new command complex at New Scotland Yard will include a message switching system, automatic call distribution, a Hendon training system, an incident information system, and a computer aided dispatch system. The London Metropolitan Police have used the Bell 222 helicopter to good advantage in traffic control, directing officers on the ground in chase situations, searching for missing persons, and controlling crowds in public order situations. Technology also permits the installation of a small computer in selected vehicles which makes possible an automatic plotting of the vehicles location and its display on a map of the area being patroled.