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The History of Police Technology Police technology increasingly involves borrowings from the physical and social sciences, as well as from the fields of jurisprudence and education. Although it was only in the 1960 s that police technology became recognized as a distinct academic and scientific discipline, the proliferation of professional publications, educational programs, workshops, and international conferences of police reveals the growing importance attached to the technical aspects of police work. Two influences serve to restrict the application of technology to police work. First, technical problems themselves may arise when the technology of one discipline is transferred to a different application in police science. Second, in the United States another democracies, constitutional and legal issues may limit or prevent the use of feasible technologies in police work.
Many examples of an incipient police technology can be found in the ancient and medieval world. Long before the beginning of the Christian Era, Egyptians used detailed word descriptions of individuals, a concept known in modern times as portrait parle. The Babylonians pressed fingerprints into clay to identify the author of cuneiform writings and to protect against forgery. Fingerprints were also used by the Chinese at an early date for purposes of identification. The concept of comparison and identification of handwriting was established in Roman times, as is evidenced by the Code of Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire, first enacted in AD 529. Branding and mutilation were used from time immemorial to identify convicted criminals.
Trial by ordeal and trial by combat were medieval methods of interrogation of suspects, with the survivors judged innocent. A more humane medieval method, and a step toward modern concepts, was compurgation, in which the friends and families of the disputant took oaths not on the facts but on the disputant's character. An Asian interrogation method involved scientific principles based on the lessening of salivation under nervous tension. The mouths of several suspects were filled with dry rice; the suspect exhibiting the greatest difficulty in spitting out the rice was judged guilty.
Another precursor of the modern lie detector was employed in India. Suspects were sent into a dark room where a sacred ass was stabled and directed to pull the animal's tail. They were warned that if the ass brayed it was a sign of guilt. The ass's tail had been dusted with black powder; those with a clear conscience pulled the tail, whereas the guilty person did not, and an examination of the suspects' hands revealed the person with the guilty conscience. Modern police methods were beginning to develop in Europe by the 18 th century and in the 19 th century were reinforced by a great number of technological advances. When the British Parliament enacted the reforms of Robert Peel in 1829, the importance of keeping comprehensive police records was recognized.
In principle, Peel stated that police records were indispensable for the proper distribution of police strength. His reforms laid the foundation for the development of the modern police communications system and provided for a coherent police organization. Until the mid- 19 th century, however, police signal systems consisted of whistles, raps on the pavement with a nightstick or baton, and flashing of lights. In 1849 the central police station at Scotland Yard and the district police stations of London were connected by a telegraph line. Other cities followed, and telegraph boxes placed at points on patrolmen's beats permitted swift calls to headquarters when assistance was needed. The telephone was first installed in a police station in Washington, D.
C. , in 1878. Two years later Chicago took the important step of installing telephone boxes on patrolmen's beats. Important advances in identification occurred in the late 19 th century. In 1882, Alphonse Bertillon of France introduced a means of identifying suspects by using measurements of the body, head, and limbs.
This system was largely supplanted by modern fingerprinting, which dates from about the same period. The Henry system of classifying fingerprints (by patterns and shapes) was adopted by Scotland Yard in 1901, and this system, or variants of it, soon became standard throughout the world. The idea of tracing and identifying an individual typewriter by means of the peculiarities of its type characters probably first appeared in Arthur Conan Doyle's story A Case of Identity, written in 1891, three years before the first mention of the subject in technical literature. The automobile, first used in police work in Akron, Ohio, in 1899, became the basis of police transportation in the 20 th century.
Closely linked with it was the adoption of radio communication. Other innovations in communications were the teletypewriter and facsimile. The teletypewriter evolved from printing telegraphs and developed rapidly during World War I; by the 1920 s it was used in police communications in most countries. Facsimile transmission (telephotography) dates from the early 1900 s, and in 1908 a criminal was captured as a result of his photo being transmitted by facsimile from Paris to London. After World War I the use of this technique became widespread. Perhaps the single most important invention in the development of police communications was the transistor, which, in the 1950 s, led to the development of small, lightweight, reliable radio transmitter-receivers.
In the 1920 s the technique of identifying firearms by the striated markings on bullet jackets was introduced. As these and other new techniques became available, the first police crime laboratories were instituted in Europe and the United States. One of the earliest was established in Lyon, Fr. There have been few innovations in weaponry. The nightstick (club) and firearm, invariably adaptations of military weapons, remained virtually unchallenged in the police arsenal until the 1960 s, when chemicals, tranquillizing darts, light- and sound-energy techniques, and other devices began appearing. Police use a number of surveillance techniques, but their chief reliance is almost universally placed on patrolling.
Police and other investigators depend on interrogation as a principal means of determining facts and resolving issues. Reliance on interrogation, however, involves certain problems: ascertaining when a suspect or witness is telling the truth, evaluating memory, allowing for the physical and mental condition of a witness or suspect, and understanding the problems created by an individual's perspective. Interrogation methods and equipment have evolved in response to these problem areas. The psychological, psychophysical, and physical sciences have played vital roles in police interrogation techniques. The most dramatic gains in interrogation technology have come through the polygraph, or so-called lie detector. The polygraph monitors and records selected body changes that are affected by a person's emotional condition.
The recorded changes are then studied, analyzed, and correlated in respect to specific questions or other stimuli. The first modern polygraph was constructed in 1921 by John A. Larson, a medical student at the University of California, working with a member of the local police department. Larson's instrument was capable of continuously recording blood pressure, pulse, and respiration; since it recorded these conditions simultaneously, it was called a polygraph. A later development provided for the recording of the psycho galvanic skin reflex (electro dermal response), the flow of current between two different parts of the body.
Research has continued on both the instrumentation and the psychological techniques necessary for its effective use by the police. Even though the polygraph has been formally and successfully used in police intelligence and security investigation since 1924, there is still no complete agreement by psychologists on its validity. Furthermore, the results of a polygraph test are not always judicially acceptable. Despite these qualifications, the polygraph has proved an invaluable aid to police interrogation and the development of investigative leads.
Criminal restraining and police protective systems have been subjects of much study and research. The developments in restraining devices and systems include lighter, more effective handcuffs with improved locking systems, lightweight thumb cuffs, pressure-twisting devices that are applied to wrists, and lighter and stronger straitjackets and leg irons. Significant developments in the technology of protective devices include heavy plastic shields to ward off rocks and other missiles, lightweight nylon clothing resistant to pistol bullets, bulletproof shields, and bulletproof armour made of nylon and ceramic materials, which can withstand high-powered rifle bullets. Studies show that in their first five years of use in the United States, bulletproof vests saved the lives of more than 700 police personnel.
Of all the police killed by guns during that period, only 10 percent were wearing vests, and virtually all of that number suffered head wounds. In the 1970 s police began experimenting with hypnosis as a means of interviewing witnesses to certain crimes. Hypnosis is reported to be particularly effective in helping witnesses give descriptions of criminals, relate the details of violent sexual attacks, and recall the scenarios immediately preceding certain accidents. Portable field chemical kits have been developed to help police detect narcotics and dangerous drugs. These kits are designed to provide a practical method for initial testing the field and are not intended to replace the more thorough laboratory examinations. Word Count: 1466 Bibliography: H.
J. Walls, Forensic Science, 2 nd ed. (1974); Wilson R. Harrison, Suspect Documents, Their Scientific Examination (1958, reprinted 1981); David A. Crown, The Forensic Examination of Paints and Pigments (1968); James W. Osterburg, The Crime Laboratory, 2 nd ed. (1982); Arne Svensson, Otto Wendel, and Barry A.
J. Fisher, Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, trans. from the Swedish, 3 rd ed. (1981); Lewis C. Nicholas, The Scientific Investigation of Crime (1956); P. L. Kirk, Crime Investigation, 2 nd ed. (1974, reprinted 1985); Charles E.
O'Hara and James W. Osterburg, An Introduction to Criminalistics (1949, reissued 1972);
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Research essay sample on 19 Th Century 2 Nd Ed
