Answer

Policing and Careers in Policing

Technology has led to many advantages for law enforcement as it has helped reduce workforce shortage, increased officer safety, and the police’s work has been made easier. However, technology has become a stressor in policing. The essay describes the challenges the field of policing will face in the future, how community relations impact the police officers’ challenges, and how they can use new technology.

Future Challenges in the Field of Policing

Encryption methods for communication devices will pose a challenge in policing in the future as police officers will rapidly lose the capability to lawfully obtain information that could be important in protecting the public from crime and violence. Advocates for enhanced privacy continue to impose more barriers and restrictions that prevent law enforcers from getting information, contributing to criminals and terrorists operating beyond the confines of Law through encrypted networks and mobile devices. Law enforcement leaders have embraced encryption as police agencies have also been victims of cyber-attacks and sensitive data being stolen.

The use of uncrewed aerial vehicles in law enforcement is increasingly being adopted due to the high cost of fixing winged helicopters that are now in use. Helicopters have been used to assist officers on the ground to get a better operational view of situations on the ground. They have also been used as a rescue team in an emergency. Adaptation of uncrewed aerial vehicles will lead to serious loss of lives or possessions in the future.

Social media will also be a challenge in policing in the future as gang recruitment, the organization of sudden protests by activists, and terrorism indoctrination are being committed on social media platforms. An example is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a jihadist group with a particularly violent ideology that is adept in the use of social media platforms for recruitment and propaganda thus will present a major challenge to state law enforcement as they will be unaware of the threats in the neighborhood.

How Community Relation Impacts the Challenges that Police Officers Face

Police community relations have contributed to some of the challenges faced by police officers. Negative publicity is largely related to police officer’s sense of legitimacy. Police officers who feel less motivated due to negative publicity express less self-legitimacy (Nix & Wolfe, 2017). Research has shown negative publicity that surrounds law enforcers shows a unique challenge to officers’ confidence in their authority, which can have major implications for society.

Corruption in the law enforcement department has been a great challenge to police officers, and community relation has facilitated increased corruption. These relations provide closer police-community ties with local business owners and politicians that may allow police officers to abuse their power and are corrupt. Corruption has led to the loss of trust and unwillingness of the poor and high-crime neighborhoods to help the police curb crimes.

New Technologies that can be used in Policing in the Future

Smart police uniforms are a new technology that police will use in future policing. This kind of smart uniform is in the form of an exoskeleton that could monitor and report on officers’ stress levels and the conditions of the surrounding environment and provide the situation awareness to the supervisors about the law enforcers. The smart uniforms will reduce police use of force hence improving community relations. As a result, trust is reestablished with the community.

            Driverless patrol cars with a heads-up screen can help police in the future. They are designed with automatic vehicle technology and packaged with supportive technologies such as biometric identification, license plate reader, and gunfire detecting system (Gregg, 2019). The automated patrol vehicle is beneficial to law enforcers as it will offer officers efficiency and safety. These patrol vehicles provide information as the car patrols the streets.

Small robots can be used by the police department in dangerous situations, such as surveilling hazardous scenes and locating threats in the future. Police robots will reduce dangers the police officer faces by removing them from hostile conditions. Crime Suspects will suffer fewer injuries as robots will assist police in arrests and searches (Joh, 2017). This Robot helps out in handing out speeding tickets, patrolling the streets, and diffusing bombs. They will help to save labor and lives. Drones are also a new technological advancement that is increasingly being used by law enforcement to enhance public safety. These drones will aid policing in the future as they are equipped with zoom cameras to monitor the country’s events (Hrabovska, 2020). Dangerous missions can be avoided unless necessary, recording information and sending it to the police station and helping the surveil prison yard prevent inmates from escaping.

In summary, community relations have contributed to the police’s challenges through corruption and negative publicity that has made police officers express less self-legitimacy. The use of encryption method in communication devices had made officers not access important information that could help them maintain public safety; the uncrewed aerial vehicle has also slowed down actions taken by the police officer, and the use of social media platform by criminals has made the police miss out important information are some of the challenges that will face policing in future. Robots, drones, driverless patrol cars, and smart uniforms are new technologies that will help the police department in policing in the future.