12 Summary of Week 6

During this week you have read about recent policing technological innovations such as LFR, initiatives to combat cybercrime and the role of social media in spreading unrest. You also read how this is nothing new – the police have long been at the forefront of adopting new technologies such as card index systems, fingerprinting or photography. You learned, however, that being at the forefront can sometimes have associated risks such as misinterpretation of data, together with controversial or poorly regulated use of technologies.

You should now be able to:

• appreciate how new technologies have affected crime and its control in the past
• analyse how the police have historically embraced new technological advances
• discuss the insights this history may give to contemporary debates in policing.

need to foreshadow to next week