By Kevin Johnson
USA TODAY
ALBUQUERQUE — Police agencies increasingly rely on controversial technology and social media to make up for the loss of thousands of officers and other resources to deep budget cuts, law enforcement officials and criminal justice analysts say.
Some, including the city of Albuquerque, have taken the unusual step of sharing real-time investigative information with private business groups on interactive websites to help stop theft rings, locate violent crime suspects and track fugitives.
The Albuquerque model, which is being replicated by agencies in Georgia, Minnesota, Washington and California, represents a significant break with law enforcement’s long tradition of walling off the public from information about developing investigations, said Albuquerque Police Chief Raymond Schultz. He said the networks help to make up for the loss of about 60 positions in the past 2 1/2 years.
That is only part of a emerging movement in law enforcement’s attempt to hold its ground with fewer cops, detectives and analysts on the job.
“Technology can never fully replace an officer,” said Camden, N.J., Police Chief Scott Thomson, whose 250-officer department has been nearly cut in half since 2006. “We’re just trying to leverage technology ... to appear bigger than we are.”
Camden uses a combination of global positioning systems, gunshot detectors placed in elevated areas throughout the city and closed-circuit cameras to identify problem areas and dispatch officers to those locations more efficiently instead of waiting for calls from the public, which sometimes never come.
After installing the shot-spotter technology last fall, the department learned that residents, many of whom had become conditioned to gunshots, were not reporting incidents of gunfire at least 30% of the time.
In especially troubled neighborhoods, a computerized patrol program ensures that police vehicles pass through designated areas several times a day or even by the hour. If a trip is missed, an e-mail alert goes to the area commander.
In Austin, Police Chief Art Acevedo is confronting a different kind of problem: Officers are not waiting for “lagging” public funding to purchase their own miniature video cameras concealed in writing pens.
About 50 officers use the devices, which cost as little as $50 each, to guard against false allegations of misconduct or abuse. Acevedo supports the technology, but this month, his staff scrambled to develop guidelines for the cameras’ use to address potential privacy concerns and other issues.
This month, a survey of 70 large police agencies by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington law enforcement think-tank, found 90% planned to increase use of various technologies, primarily aimed at deterring crime by adopting more efficient surveillance, patrol and response strategies.
The forum’s survey found that 86% of agencies used some form of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Nixle to monitor or follow up on leads and potential threats.
Copyright 2011 Gannett Company, Inc.