As part of a federally funded project, the present study employed a longitudinal pre- and post-design using 7 years of computer-aided dispatch data from a medium-sized municipal police department in the New England region.
Although research has explored impacts of mobile computing and information technology on police operations, the literature lacks exploration of large-bandwidth, data-sharing technologies that enhance the utility of mobile computing terminals. In the current study, pooled time series analyses were employed to examine the effect of wireless broadband implementation on clearance time of calls for service. Findings offer tentative support that clearance times for service calls decreased with the implementation of a wireless broadband network. Implementation did not appear to generate differential effects in areas that had experienced past challenges with cellular communication signals. Implications are provided, with an emphasis on the development of additional knowledge on technological evaluations. (Publisher abstract modified)