Internet technology to aid police, courts, prisons – but privacy issues must be addressed
“Criminal records today are incomplete and the records we do have are generally based locally,” Hollywood said. “What we need is an ability to get information about a person’s criminal history quickly and reliably, even when they move across city or state lines.”
Panel members also endorsed improving education across the criminal justice system about key Web-enabled technologies such as sensors and video conferencing. In addition, there is a need for better high-speed Internet connections across the system in order to make use of the new tools.
Other specific law enforcement priorities include biometric sensors that police or correction officers could wear to monitor heartbeat and other vital signs, automatically calling for help if monitoring suggests an officer has been injured or is having a heart attack.
For courts, technology may be able to help ease case backlogs by making it possible for witnesses to testify remotely or even have whole trials done remotely. Better electronic scheduling also could improve the operation of courts.
Jails and prisons could be aided by improved Internet connectivity that allows prisoners to stay in touch with community service providers and parole officers prior to their release. Setting up video connections to prisoners was the top-ranked need from the panel. Technology also could make house arrest more secure, thereby keeping low-level offenders from being sent to crowded jails.
Despite the optimism, the panel of experts said the technologies envisioned raised issues related to both civil and privacy rights. Standards must be agreed upon that enable use of the technologies, while also assuring that they are not used inappropriately, such as to monitor lawful activities.
“There needs to be agreed upon limits on some of the technologies so that they are not used to limit the privacy and civil rights of innocent people,” Hollywood said. “In addition, there need to be security standards to make sure that as more information is collected, the information is adequately protected from hacking.”
Other authors of the study are Dulani Woods, Richard Silberglitt, and Brian A. Jackson.
RAND notes that the study is part of the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative, a multiphase project RAND is conducting for the National Institute of Justice to assess and prioritize technology needs across the criminal justice community. Other reports have explored topics such as digital evidence and information technology in criminal justice.
Funding for the study was provided by the Office of Justice Programs at the National Institute of Justice.
The project was conducted within the RAND Safety and Justice Program, which conducts public policy research on corrections, policing, public safety and occupational safety.
— Read more in John S. Hollywood et al., Using Future Internet Technologies to Strengthen Criminal Justice (RAND Corporation, 2015)
