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TECHBeat, Winter 2012

NCJ Number
237758
Journal
Techbeat Dated: Winter 2012 Pages: 1-16
Editor(s)
Michele Coppola
Date Published
February 2012
Length
16 pages
Annotation

Featured articles address the management of gangs in schools; improving communication with cognitive radios; merging technologies for better policing; how Dunwoody, GA, built a police department from scratch after becoming incorporated in 2008; and the launching of a red-light camera program.

Abstract

"Managing Gangs in Schools" addresses why youth join gangs, prevention strategies for alleviating and discouraging gang activity in schools, and tips for school resource officers in the investigation of possible gang activity in a school. "Easing Communication with Cognitive Radios" describes the use of the Android cell phone as a means of finding and identifying public safety networks and configuring themselves to interoperate with them. This enables police to cooperate across jurisdictions when making a joint response to an incident. The article focuses on the use of the Android phone, which displays signals from all public safety networks within range, and it serves as a handheld portal between any two networks or as a handheld repeater. "Merging Technologies for Better Policing" describes the Minneapolis Police Department's use of crime mapping and predictive analytics to identify where to concentrate police resources, along with video cameras to perform tactical analytics to help assess scenes to identify the location, how many officers should respond, from which direction they should approach, and what they should do when they arrive. "New Policing Era Dawns in Dunwoody" describes the process used in building a police department in a newly incorporated suburban city. "Launching a Red-Light Camera Program" describes a successful red-light camera program established in Gulf Breeze, FL, which was the first city in the State to implement such a system. A technology news summary is also included in the issue.