Police and computer technology—The expectations and the results

Abstract

In July, 1965, in the face of dramatic rises in reported crime and delinquency rates, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice (sometimes called the Crime Commission) was created. One area selected for special attention in the Commission’s final report was the potential contribution of science and technology in the generally labor-intensive field of law enforcement. Because criminal justice agencies must process enormous quantities of data, the use of computer technology—electronic computers and new techniques such as systems analysis, operations research and computer modeling—seemed particularly promising, and the use of computer technology by the police has expanded significantly since the mid-1960s.