How the Police Access Data to Obtain Criminal Information - Assignment Example

POME Police Operations in the Modern Era and Section # of Police Operations in the Modern Era Police work for me had just been a fantasy, a feat performed by handsome men and women in action-packed dramas. Little did I know that those action packed dramas are full of real life scenarios used by the actual police patrolling our neighborhoods. I didn’t stumble across this information but had to do some research after my uncle got apprehended right in front of me when he was driving me to a baseball game last summer.

He lives in California and was visiting us in Miami for a break from his work, about which we knew nothing about. It was a cool evening and we being late for the opening pitch, uncle Bobby was driving way over the speed limit when a police patrol car appeared from nowhere and told us to pull over which we did. My uncle told me to stay in the car while he went out to talk to this big cop. After a few moments the cop reached for his radio and mumbled something into it. After a few minutes to my horror he handcuffed my uncle, checked my license and told me to drive home, just after he told me that my uncle had a warrant out in California.

Research How did a cop of MPD know about outstanding warrants in California? I got intrigued and started looking for answers. I came up with a few observations about the digital media and its integration with the modern police force. Firstly, my uncle had previous criminal record in California. Therefore the police Record Management System (RMS) in California had every piece of personal information of an offender in there state properly indexed and catalogued (Raymond, 2005). So now comes the query that even if a criminal has outstanding warrants and all sorts of records in the state of California, how a trooper retrieved that information on a highway from his car through a wireless radio.

The answer to this lies in the Central Justice Information System, National Incident Base Reporting System and Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Now the way the trooper in his car used his radio to gather information about uncle Bobby can just be speculated using the information available to us on the internet. The trooper radioed dispatch and told him the name of my uncle and his social service number; in turn the dispatch operator forwarded that information to the regional data base operator who checked the person’s name and his social security number for a nation-wide search through the NCIC 2000 (Raymond, 2005).

The results that came back were a positive match for a person (uncle bobby), who had outstanding warrants in a different state on the U.S. My uncle being apprehended is a prime example on the fast processing systems, data base searching and fast paced communication devices available commercially. The charges that were brought down against my uncle were several over speeding, driving with an expired license, Conclusion The conclusion hence can be an interesting one keeping in mind the hands on experience of the apprehension of Mr.

Bob Swagger. First of all, gone are the days when criminals can commit crime in any state and then ride out into the sun on horses with their loots because there will always be your picture on the wanted posters in the next state or in the next. The local sheriff, now the local trooper, will always have a tech savvy partner on the other side of the radio telling him about the crimes committed by the person in question. Details as deep as their weight is just click away now. Even if the crime was committed ages ago or miles away the digital hand of the law is and always be just behind you backed with the rapidly enhancing technology advancements.

References Book Foster, Raymond. E. (2005). Police Technology. U.S.A: Prentice Hall. Website Criminal lawyers. Experienced Criminal Lawyers. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from www.experiencedcriminallawyers.com Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI, Information Access Division. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from www.fbi.gov Western Identification Network. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from www.winid.org