Chapter Four

TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT

The need to develop, test, and field new law enforcement tools remains as compelling as ever, given the rapidly increasing technological capabilities of criminals. U.S. government national laboratories
that produce advanced technologies and U.S. businesses that supply
those technologies to local law enforcement agencies would benefit
from a focused effort to develop and deploy crime-fighting technologies to local agencies.
About 95 percent of a typical law enforcement agencys budget is
dedicated to personnel. The scarce resources left over are spent on
basic equipment, such as cars, radios, and side arms. There is little
money available to purchase the new tools necessary to keep up with
criminals. As the examples below demonstrate, a new effort to get
technology onto the streets is needed to provide modern crimefighting tools to the nations local law enforcement agencies.

CURRENT STATUS
NIJ has funded the research, development, testing, and evaluation of
numerous technologies to help law enforcement. These range from
less-than-lethal technologies, to weapons detection, see-throughwalls systems, capture nets, a smart gun, a rapid DNA identification system, and more. There are numerous cases where new DNA
techniques have helped free people who were wrongly convicted. NIJ
has also put on the streets the technologies that it is helping to develop. For example, police now have a better way to stop a fleeing car
with less risk to officers and bystanders because of an NIJ technology
called RoadSpike. The following are examples of technologies cur-

31

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Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

rently in use by, or being developed and tested for, law enforcement
agencies.

Technology Available to Campus Police

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has compiled data on nonlethal
weapons authorized for use by officers in college campus law enforcement agencies.1 Fifty-six percent of campus police departments
authorize use of pepper spray, 45 percent use of collapsible batons,
34 percent PR-24 batons, 30 percent traditional batons, 11 percent
personal tear gas, 5 percent large-volume tear gas, 5 percent the
carotid hold,2 2 percent the choke hold, 2 percent stun guns, and 1
percent flash/bang grenades.3
As of 1995, 99 percent of campus law enforcement agencies used
some type of computer. Ninety percent used personal computers, 62
percent a mainframe, 33 percent had a local area network, 6 percent
used handheld and 2 percent car-mounted mobile digital terminals
(Sourcebook, p. 42).

A Computer System to Track Gang Members

In March 1998, California Governor Pete Wilson announced an
$800,000 state investment in a computer system to track gang
members. The CalGang system, first developed in Los Angeles, will
enable any law enforcement agency in the state to access a master
index and share information about the movement of street gangs.
Agencies will be able to get on the Intranet system with computer
software they can buy for less than $30. The system will give them
photographs of gang members and other identifying information.
Wilson also announced expansion of a program to track more than
33,000 active prison parolees. Information on the statewide computer network includes a parolees record, aliases, physical description, addresses, vehicles, and even identifying marks, such as tattoos.
______________
1We have not found similar data on municipal police departments.
2The carotid hold applies pressure to the carotid arteries supplying blood to the head.
If applied too aggressively, it can cause death.
3Sourcebook, p. 42. These are 1995 data.

Technology Deployment

33

Wireless Data Communications

In 1997, the Guilford, Connecticut, Police Department announced
completion of its wireless data communications pilot, which allows
officers to gather vital suspect information and complete paperwork
while remaining in the field.
The officers are equipped with laptop computers with wireless
modems, enabling them to access applications and data in Guilford;
from the states mainframe motor vehicle and warrant information
in Hartford, CT; from the National Crime Information Center, in
Washington, D.C., and from the National Law Enforcement
Telecommunication System, in Phoenix, AZ.
Guilford officers have immediate access to information on their
computer screen without having to request it by voice radio
enhancing security and leaving the voice dispatch system free for
emergency calls. The portable computers have increased productivity at all points, freeing officers from needing to return to the station for information and allowing dispatchers and clerical staff to
concentrate on their own tasks.
The Guilford Police Department funded the purchase of the computers and the software through the Federal COPS MORE Program. To
qualify for the grant, the department had to show a concrete plan for
using mobile computing to keep officers in the field and increasing
their contact with the public. The federal grant funded 75 percent of
the project, and Guilford contributed 25 percent.

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
NLECTC has awarded grants for development of technology in the
areas of communications, computers and software, forensics, lessthan-lethal weapons, protective equipment, security equipment,
surveillance and sensor equipment, vehicles and equipment, and
weapons and ammunition. Each of the following development projectsand many othersare described on NLECTCs web site at
www.nlectc.org/techproj:

Face Recognition Technology for Internet-Based Gang Tracking

Integrated Law Enforcement Face-Identification System

34

Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

Weapons Team Engagement Trainer

DNA Human-Identity Testing Using Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Forensic Investigations Information Management System

Various less-than-lethal technologies

Concealable Body Armor

Back-Scatter Imaging System for Concealed Weapons Identification

Handheld Acoustic System for Concealed Weapons Detection

Ballistocardiogram Human Presence Detection Technology

Demonstration

Vehicle Stopping RoadSpike.

Some of these technologies are quite different from what laypeople

might think of as useful to law enforcement agencies. For example,
one of NLECTCs projects developed software to help law enforcement agencies make cost-effective decisions for disposal of police
patrol vehicles. The software enables agencies to generate a list
ranking individual vehicles for disposal to minimize fleet maintenance and repair costs.
The federal government is not the only funder of law enforcement
technology development.
Contributions from the private sector should not be overlooked. One
of the strategic recommendations from a study conducted by the Los
Angeles Police Department was that departments should establish
active liaisons and affiliations with private sector industries engaged
in the development of advanced technology, which is either already
adapted to or capable of being adapted for law enforcement needs
(Paniccia, 1998, p. 10).
States and a few larger cities also fund technology development.
California, for example, has made a substantial investment in a computer system to track gang members, as mentioned earlier.
NIJs Office of Science and Technology regularly convenes committees of experts to review technological issues bearing on law en-

Technology Deployment

35

forcement and corrections. This Law Enforcement and Corrections

Technology Advisory Council has identified the following 11 highpriority concerns, each of these are discussed below and in Chapter
Five:

Nonintrusive detection of concealed weapons and contraband

Safer vehicle pursuit

DNA testing

Officer protection

Less-than-lethal incapacitation

Information management

Counterterrorism

Crime mapping

Location and tracking

Secure communications

Noninvasive drug detection.

Smart Gun
The Smart Gun Prototype II program is a one-year project to develop
a firearm that will only fire for a recognized user.4 When energized,
the gun emits a radio signal that is received by a small transponder
worn by the authorized user, which returns a coded radio signal.
When the gun receives the signal, a locking pin is removed from the
trigger mechanism, enabling the gun to be fired.
FBI data show that about 16 percent of the officers killed in the line
of duty are killed by a suspect armed with either the officers own
firearm or that of another officer. In addition, there are currently
10,000 civilian firearms-related injuries and deaths each year due to
accidental discharge or unauthorized use of a firearm.
______________
4This description is from NLECTCs web site, www.nlectc.org/.

36

Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

The need for and applicability of this technology has been aptly described in an NIJ-funded document issued by Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Smart Gun Technology Project
Final Report (available in Adobe Acrobat format, http://www.prod.
sandia.gov/cgi-bin/techlib/access-control.p1/1996/961131.pdf). Sandia
identified the law enforcement requirements for smart firearms
technology and then investigated, evaluated, prioritized, and demonstrated (by proof of concept) the most promising technologies
available.
Prototype I was tested and demonstrated. These tests showed that
the technology can work, that all necessary electronic and mechanical components can be made to fit inside a full-size pistol, and that
authorization can be made well within the time required to draw and
aim. Colt Manufacturing has been funded by NIJ to design and build
Prototype II, which will contain more-advanced designs suitable for
the law enforcement environment.

Vehicle Stopping
Police pursuits of suspects in motor vehicles have received considerable public attentionin large part due to live coverage by local
television news programs.
From 1990 to 1994, an average of 331 people nationwide per year
died as a result of police pursuits; 78.9 percent of these were in the
pursued vehicle. An average of about 68 uninvolved people died
each year as a result of high-speed pursuits. In California, approximately 2 percent of all pursuits result in serious injury, and about
one-half of 1 percent involved a fatality. Research conducted to date
indicates strong public approval of police pursuits as long as certain
safeguards are in place. 5
The Pursuit Management Task Force recently convened by the NIJ
offered the following priority listing of recommendations:
______________
5This section quotes extensively from Bayless and Osborne (1998).

Technology Deployment

37

1. More resources for research, development, testing, and commercialization of viable pursuit termination, management, and prevention technologies, to include

an accelerated Phase III program to deliver electrical, electromagnetic, or other technology prototypes for operational
testing and evaluation by local and regional law enforcement
agencies

encouragement of civilian law enforcement agencies to participate with vendors and suppliers in developing prototypes

encouragement of continued cooperation between agencies

of the Department of Defense (DoD) and civilian law enforcement to transfer appropriate defense technology for law
enforcement use.

2. Aggressive development of

retractable direct injection electrical systems

radiative electrical systems, including high-power microwaves

cooperative systems with law enforcement activation

auditory/visual sensory enhancements (improved warning

devices).

3. A national model for collection of pursuit statistics.

4. State legislation making fleeing from lawful detention/arrest in a
motor vehicle a serious crime with significant penalties.
5. Federal efforts to further public education about pursuits.
6. Research to improve interagency tactical communications technology.

Counterterrorism
Table 3 shows the most frequently cited technology needs for combating terrorism, as identified by a 1998 study sponsored by NIJ.

38

Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

Table 3
Technology Needs for Combating Terrorism
Function
Apprehension and riot control

Need
Improved nonlethal weapons

Command, control, and communications

Improved and/or more readily available, secure

communications for the beat cop
Improved interagency communications

Defense against cyberterrorism

Improved detection, forensics, and countermeasures for cyber attacks

Defense against nuclear, biological, or chemical weaponsa

Improved means to detect and categorize NBC

threats
Improved, affordable protective suits

Detection, disablement, and containment of explosive devices

Improved means of explosives detection

Improved robots for disarmament and disabling
of explosive devices
Improved containment vessels and vehicles for
explosive devices

Intelligence

National intergovernmental information system

with current intelligence on terrorism

Surveillance

Improved see-through-the-wall capability

Improved electronic listening devices
Improved long-range video monitoring
Improved night-vision devices

Training
Improved training to combat terrorism
SOURCE: TriData Corporation (1998), p. 16.
a Referred to in the TriData report as weapons of mass destruction.

Communications Systems
The local law enforcement communitys ability to fight crime would
be significantly enhanced if personnel could communicate and exchange data in a seamless fashion. Numerous cases have been reported in the news in which a lack of interoperability has led to the
escape of suspects, including the murder of police officers. Communications provides the backbone that supports local law enforcement agencies efforts to combat crime. But in most communities,

Technology Deployment

39

radio systems supporting police, fire and emergency medical services

are overwhelmed. Worse, current frequency allocations and technologies make it impossible for adjacent agencies to talk to each
other. To help address this, the Clinton administration has successfully freed up 24 MHz of new radio frequencies; however, modernizing the public safety wireless infrastructure so it can take advantage
of this new spectrum will be a massive undertaking.
Most communication among law enforcement agencies is by telephone, but electronic bulletin boards and web sites are increasingly
used. Police planning staffs spend significant time (on average 13
percent of their time) responding to requests from outside agencies
(NIJ, 1998).
The Crime Identification Technology Act of 1998 authorizes
$250,000,000 for assistance to states each year, for five years, for a
broad range of crime technology activities. The act provides for system integration for criminal justice purposes to help states develop
and upgrade their anticrime technology from the patchwork of existing programs, integrate law enforcement and public safety records
and communications, and integrate and interface with national
criminal information and public safety databases.
One of the NLECTC communications projects is providing New York
State with system engineering support for a wireless communications network. Another, the State and Local Communications Interoperability Analysis project, provides background data, requirements
definitions, and direct assistance support to state and local law enforcement, corrections, and public safety agencies to alleviate problems associated with differences in radio systems and operational
procedures. Yet another NLECTC project is demonstrating and evaluating use of telecommunications technology to provide medical
care in corrections environments.

TESTING AND EVALUATION

The proposed initiative would expand the NLECTCs current testing
and evaluation programsincluding partnering with the DoD testing capabilities and Department of Energy (DoE) national laboratoriesso that the local law enforcement community can be confident
that the tools they receive work as advertised under realistic condi-

40

Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

tions. These testing programs will enable law enforcement to make

the best investment possible in new equipment and, more importantly, save lives, for example, as shown from experience with soft
body armor.6 Of the 307 models of body armor tested in 1997, only
124about 40 percentpassed. The Bulletproof Vest Partnership
Grant Act of 1998 funds provision of armored vests for police officers.
In considering the act, Congress found that, although bullet-resistant
materials helped save the lives of more than 2,000 law enforcement
officers between 1985 and 1994, nearly 25 percent of law enforcement officers are not issued body armor.

Technologies Tested in Mock Prison Riot

In April 1998, OLETC sponsored a second annual mock prison riot,
designed to give corrections and law enforcement officials from
across the country an opportunity to witness a crisis management
exercise that tested and demonstrated the newest technologies.
Table 4 lists some of the more than 60 technologies that were
demonstrated.

OLETC Commercialization Projects

Here we briefly describe several commercialization projects and the
role OLETC played in them.7

Counter Point Correctional Vest. A low-cost, lightweight staband slash-resistant vest for corrections officers who face a lesser
ballistic threat than most police officers. OLETC provided commercialization assistance to allow the inventor to rapidly identify
the potential market for this product, establish an integrated
commercialization methodology, and provide the tools to effectively initiate market entry.

______________
6The police need for body armor has increased as criminals have become more heavily armed. Of the 687 officers killed by firearms in the decade ending in 1993, more
than half were killed by relatively powerful weapons: 25.2 percent by .38 caliber handguns, 12.1 percent by .357 Magnum handguns, 9.5 percent by 9 millimeter handguns,
and 7.4 percent by 12 gauge shotgun (Zawitz, 1995).
7Information in this section is from Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (1999).

Technology Deployment

41

Table 4
Technologies Tested in Mock Prison Riot

Technology
Body Armor

Commercialized
Yes

Description
A bulletproof vest said to be capable of stopping
a nine-millimeter submachine gun, a .44 Magnum, and all lesser threats

Entanglement Net

Yes

A device that shoots a five-square-meter net to

stop a fleeing suspect

Night-vision
devices

Yes

A head- or hand-mountable device that allows

officers to see in dark areas by greatly intensifying the available light

Pupil Measurement
Device

No

Detects drug or alcohol use, providing an officer

with probable cause to perform other tests

RoadSpike

Yes

A long strip that lies on the ground; when a

vehicle rolls over the strip, hollow point spikes
embed and slowly flatten the tires

Silent Witness

Yes

A secured audio recording device carried by an

officer to monitor officer/suspect interactions;
can be downloaded for incident review

Spider Alert

Yes

Personal alarm designed to track employees

Tiger Vision

No

An imaging technology using invisible infrared

light to give officers greater vision in total darkness
SOURCE: Making Corrections Technology Work for You, LRP Publications, May 1998,
pp. 68.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Training Kit. A bomb

technician training kit developed by the United States Navy Explosives Ordnance Disposal Technology Division. OLETC has
assisted the navy in managing the entire commercialization process by developing a commercialization plan, performing user
and market analysis, managing the competitive licensee selection process, and assisting with the development of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.

Integrated Law Enforcement Face Identification System. A

special integrated facial identification system that can screen

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Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

over one million mug shots in less than two seconds. The system
is currently under development by OLETC.

RadarVision. A see-through-walls technology using timemodulated radio signals. OLETC has assisted the developer in
introducing the technology to a number of federal market
sectors.

RoadSpike. A remotely activated, retractable spike barrier strip

to safely conclude high-speed vehicular pursuits. OLETCs role in
the commercialization process was to identify candidate U.S.
manufacturers, perform market and financial evaluations, and to
assist the inventor and manufacturer to conclude a formal
licensing agreement.

Tiger Vision. A patented, low-cost, hand-held, multipurpose lowor no-light, night imaging system that operates on a standard
camcorder battery or 12-volt car battery. OLETCs role in the
commercialization process consisted of performing market research and financial analyses, developing a commercialization
plan, profiling and identifying candidate manufacturing partners, and assisting the developer and a candidate manufacturer
to conclude an acceptable license agreement.

Technology Too Good to Be True

The Star Trek crew used a hand-held device to detect life forms on
alien planets. Is it possible to actually have such a device, to enable
police to locate hidden suspects at a safe distance?
Enter the DKL LifeGuard, with the following advertised performance
characteristics:
The DKL LifeGuard can localize living humans up to 600 meters
away, day or night, in open ground. At shorter ranges, people can be
located through concrete and steel walls, earthen barriers, inside
stationary or moving vehicles, and underwater. The LifeGuards
patented dielectrokinetic technology enables it to distinguish humans from all other living things, even a gorilla or an orangutan. It
is compact, portable, and effective in most weather conditions.
There are no known electronic or other countermeasures to the
LifeGuard, and it is silent, passive, and undetectable. There are
three LifeGuard models, each with its key features (World Wide

Technology Deployment

43

Web, http://www.dklabs.com/Model3.htm, as it appeared February

25, 1999).

Fortunately for police departments contemplating buying these

$6,000$14,000 devices, NLECTC and Sandia tested them. Their
findings:
The results of the March performance tests were that the device
failed to perform as advertised and performed no better than random chance, despite being operated well within advertised specifications and by an operator provided by the manufacturer (Murray,
1998).

SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION

Factors in Acquisition Decisions: The Example of Less-ThanLethal Technology
Many acquisition decisions are so complex that the need for expert
help is obvious. The following description of factors related to lessthan-lethal (LTL) technologies illustrates this.8
Behavioral and Legal Considerations. To date, law enforcement has
for the most part deployed a limited range of LTL weapons. The reasons for this range from cost, effectiveness, availability, and reliability
issues to the unpredictability of effects and concerns about liability.
For example, although a given LTL weapon may have minimal
medical implications for normal healthy subjects, a high percentage
of the individuals on whom law enforcement officers may use these
weapons are mentally impaired or may be under the influence of
drugs or alcohol. For some individuals with mental illness or those
on depressants or stimulants, a technologys effects may be enhanced and longer-lasting than anticipated. Other individuals may
have a higher pain threshold or impaired judgment. In addition, law
enforcement and corrections may be reluctant to deploy a new technology, munitions, or LTL weapon if there are concerns about its getting into the wrong hands.
______________
8Factors provided by Lieutenant Michael Grossman of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department.

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Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

Training. Police training tends to focus primarily on technique, with

little integration of the full range of force options an officer may employ (e.g., physical constraint) in lieu of or in combination with a
given technology (Pilant, 1993). For some technologies, one size fits
all training may be appropriate; for others, training must be tailored
to the user. Some LTL weapons, for example, may require that an officer not only be tactically skilled, but also knowledgeable in the full
gamut of use of force optionsfrom vocalization to grappling to the
application of lethal force. Those in specialized units, such as SWAT
(Special Weapons and Tactics) teams, will have more training on
movement and tactical situations and a greater exposure to a wider
range of situations; whereas patrol officers may be given morestandardized training.
Cost. The adoption of a new technology must take into account the
cost of equipping an entire department or specialized units, along
with training costs. In law enforcement, limited budgets make acquisition and training costs a central issue. Or cost considerations
might lead a department to make certain technologies available only
to specialized units or designated supervisors.
Risk Management. Risk management, in practice, largely deals with
damage limitation and legal liability, since most of the riskmanagement activity in this country takes place in an adversarial
environment (Morgan, 1981). It is not enough to analyze risks or
even to develop a strategy to manage risk; attention must also be
given to communicating what is known about the risk to
decisionmakers and the public (Leiss, 1996). Legal scholars have
contributed to the field of risk communication, seeking to develop a
neutral framework for characterizing the weight of evidence
underlying risk assessments (Walker, 1996).
Sweetman (1987) lists the following desirable characteristics of LTL
and other tactical technologies:

Quick deployability and decisiveness in their application with a

high probability of instantaneous control over a suspect

Effects that are temporary and observable, with minimal medical

consequences and predictable duration

A high probability of affecting only the intended target

Technology Deployment

45

Features that minimize the potential for abuse

Reliability and durability

Compactness, light weight, and ease of access

Wide public and departmental acceptability

Compatibility with the other force options available to an officer

for a given type of situation.

An LA Story: Differences Technology Can Make

A 1989 workload study conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) found that officers spent as much as 40 percent of their
time performing administrative duties. Patrol officers and detectives
were hampered by archaic manual reporting procedures such as filling out paper-and-pencil reports, following complex procedures for
bookings, waiting in line to check out vehicles or change watch, and
manually filing/searching for records. Each time they arrested a suspect, they had difficulty accessing vital crime history information.
Mobilization in the face of a natural disaster or other emergency was
accomplished by calling around to see who was available for deployment. Daily field deployment relied on bulletin boards that utilized thumbtacks and magnets. The LAPD was functioning in the
technological equivalent of the 1960s and had not been able to benefit from the technological advances that have increased productivity
and efficiency throughout the business world.
To remedy the situation, the Mayor of Los Angeles formed a publicprivate alliance (called the Mayors Alliance) that provided 1,200
computer workstations and related technology for the LAPD. Individual stations are equipped with electronic mail, voice mail, and local area network (LAN) capabilities. The LANs automate crime reporting and investigative procedures and, in the future, will include
and maintain critically needed databases for personnel deployment,
evidence tracking, and vehicle management. This new technology is
expected to decrease the time required by officers to perform administrative and reporting tasks by 2530 percent.
COPS MORE funding complements the Mayors Alliance effort to
create a comprehensive equipment and technology package that includes the extension of LANs to the field and to detectives assigned

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Needs and Prospects for Crime-Fighting Technology

to both specialized and geographic areas,9 creation of a paperless reporting system with laptop computers, development of a data architecture for reengineering business processes within the LAPD,10 extension of fiber-optic connectivity, installation of video case filing
(Bellow, 1993), and development of a conditions-of-probation system.11
Reducing the time officers spend in administrative functions will increase their productivity by an estimated 1819 percent, which is the
equivalent of deploying 682 currently sworn officers into the field.

PROSPECTS FOR IMPROVED TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT

It should be evident from the discussion above that the needs for improved law enforcement technology are great and that much new
technology is being developed. The need for testing and communication of test results is also evident. This service can most economically be provided by the federal government and, by helping state
and local law enforcement make good acquisition decisions, this
federal investment can more than pay for itself in savings to local
agencies. In addition, by promoting commercialization of technologies with law enforcement potential, better technology can become
available sooner and often at lower cost. In the next chapter, we discuss how federal funds can be used to improve the technologies in
state and local crime labs.
______________
9Other cities adopting such systems have found that officers can save 4060 percent of
the time they spend in preparing reports, with an overall productivity improvement of
1530 percent.
10Developing a data architecture and reengineering the LAPDs outdated business
processes are expected to result in dramatic improvements in performance departmentwide. Reengineering experts estimate increases in efficiency of 3050 percent.
11In March 1997, the New York City Department of Probation began installing a stateof-the-art electronic reporting system to allow probation officers to better manage
large caseloads and focus on rehabilitation and other important duties.