Introduction
Ever since the biblical times there has been some form of law enforcement, their main work was to protect the people and uphold the law of the land. In ancient Egypt there were different forms of law enforcement and security forces, there were law enforcers who protected the pharaoh, others who maintained law and order, and finally the military who protected the borders and went to wars. There were several other well-formed civilizations who had well-organized law enforcement agencies ; they included the Syrians, the Palestinians and finally the Babylonians present-day Iraq (Cavelty, 2016) . Law enforcement has changed a lot since those days, they have become more organized and more intelligent, and this research paper is going to analyze the impacts that technology has on law enforcement critically .
Technology had some notable effect on law enforcement in the United States in the 20th century. There were three technologies that really revolutionized the state of the law enforcement; these technologies included the two-way radio, the use of patrol cars, and the invention of the telephone. The two ways radio call did work very easy ; the police supervisors could now easily communicate with their officers, making the quality of work even better. Patrol cars were introduced in the late 1920’s this made the mobility of officers very easy and the response time lowered. The telephone, on the other hand, made it easy for citizens to connect directly with the officers (Siegel, 2016) .
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Today technology has really improved the department of law enforcement; technology has advanced basically in all areas of the police department. They include communication, weapons, transportation and has advanced other areas were impossible a few decades ago ; these technological advancements include brainwave sensors, density scanner, vision enhancers, heat sensors among several others.
Technology has played a very important role in supplying the police departments with equipment that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the police officers. CTAC (Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center) scientists are working with government agencies to help the law enforcement officers to use technology to reduce drug trafficking (Ferguson, 2017) .one of the gadgets developed by this scientists is the mini buster, it is a handheld device that senses solid devices in hidden compartments of a vehicle. This device is very useful in locating smuggled items (Lloyd, 2017) .
Example companies involved in the area
Advanced wireless telecom (Awt911) is a company that deals mostly with wireless networks. The scientists from this company created a wireless interoperability system that connects the federal state and local broadcasting frequencies (Siegel, 2016) . This is a very important invention because it ensures that there is real-time and efficient communication among all security agencies, it is very useful for the first responders and emergency personnel. CTAC has also created a nonintrusive freight inspection device; this device shows all the content in a sealed container. This device is 98 percent accurate in detecting weapons, drugs, explosive and even biological agents, this device offers the police officer a certain amount of protection as well as saving them time (Ferguson, 2017) .
Jenoptik a company based in the United Kingdom has been the leading producer of Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems, this is dices that have a camera and linked to a database, it takes pictures of motor vehicles number plates and compares them against stolen vehicles plates. The search also shows the type of car and color. It is very effective in knowing if the number plate is fake or not meant for a certain car (Lloyd, 2017) . The system was very successful in London since it was first created in the late 1980’s, the United States adopted the system in the late 1990’s and was first used around the border entry points. Today the system is in every patrol car (Lloyd, 2017) .
From the time the police officer starts his car the APLR takes 60 pictures per second. The number plate is then processed by the Optical Character Recognition software (OCR). And compare the data with the database to look which one matches a stolen vehicle. The system works with lightning speed, even if the patrol car is going at a hundred miles per hour it will analyze all the vehicles passed along the road and vehicles on parking lots. Due to its effective nature, it is now used globally, police officers in South Africa, Germany, France, and Canada have all adopted the system. The system if linked to several databases can also give information of the owner of the car (Taylor, 2014) .
In large cities police officers are faced with a lot of challenges the major one being language, people from different countries speak different languages, and states like New York has a lot of visitors from all over the world (Taylor, 2014) . This makes it very hard for police officers to interview suspects and witnesses. There are several companies that offer language translator ; the most preferred language translator comes from a company called language-line, their software is very effective and is equivalent to employing a native speaker to translate (Sople, 2016) .
Regulatory issues surrounding the area
There has been a growing tension between law enforcement and individual privacy and with the rise of technology the issues have been in the limelight, with a lot of conspiracy theories being formed. However, the tension has been there even before the new media and technologies (Ferguson, 2017) . The real reason it has been in the limelight is that people have the mentality that what they are doing is none of the law enforcement business. Due to this mentality, people have gone to court and raised the privacy issues leading to the regulation of certain aspects of the police department.
Even though these tensions started a long time ago before technology came, the new technologies have intensified the situation making it tenser, today people are more suspicious of the law enforcement agencies always feeling as if their private life if being monitored (Peppard, 2016) . There have tones of cases in courts and even the supreme court of people feeling as if their privacy was violated. Such cases have hindered the use of technology to their full potential (Harris, 2015) .
Future trends in the area
There is a new uniform called Law Enforcement Advanced Protection System that is being developed by the United States Department of defense. The uniform is being built to be an amour against chemicals ballistics and harmful chemicals ; the system is specifically built for SWAT teams and Hazmat specialists. The uniforms are also being developed to contain radios a pouch for extra ammunition and hydration pouches. The ergonomic load belt is designed to hold pistol flash bangs and other necessary equipment. The helmet in the uniform will contain a flash GPS system, detachable mandible that will protect the neck (Harris, 2015) . The uniform also comes with kneepads elbow pads among several others (Siciliano, 2016) .
Equipment for the future is the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), this is autopilot planes that will survey a given area of interest. The first UAV was used in world war one for target practice. The new UAV’s will be operated by computers at a far distance ; it will be very important equipment in law enforcement (Siegel, 2016) . Today there are a lot of drones in the market that work in the same way as the UAV the difference is that the UAV will be more advanced.
The 21st century has come with a lot of technological advancements in the law enforcement agencies. Today most crime affecting the country is coming from overseas countries. This fact has lead to the increase in the use of technology among law enforcement agencies. The police responsibilities now include international crime-fighting (Cavelty, 2016) . The police officers of today have to deal with different types of crime that have never been seen before. In conclusion, law enforcement has come a long way from the brutal error of the Roman Empire into a world of terrorism; the policing methods of the United States have changed from gun-toting cowboys to the high-tech crime prevention and investigation experts. Technology has played a very big role in making law enforcement a little easier and the world a little smaller and easier to manage.
References
Cavelty, M. D., & Mauer, V. (2016). Power and security in the information age: Investigating the role of the state in cyberspace . Routledge.
Ferguson, A. G. (2017). The rise of big data policing: Surveillance, race, and the future of law enforcement . New York : New York University Press
Harris, N., & Learning, B. D. (2015). Crime Fighting . Chicago: Britannica Digital Learning. Chicago : Britannica Digital Learning
Lloyd, I. (2017). Information technology law . Oxford University Press.
Peppard, J., & Ward, J. (2016). The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy . John Wiley & Sons.
Siciliano, B., & Khatib, O. (Eds.). (2016). Springer handbook of robotics . Springer.
Siegel, E. (2016). Predictive analytics: The power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die (pp. 103-110). Hoboken (NJ): Wiley.
Sople, V. V. (2016). business process outsourcing a supply chain of expertises . PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Susskind, R., & Susskind, D. (2015). The future of the professions: How technology will transform the work of human experts . Oxford University Press, USA.
Taylor, R. W., Fritsch, E. J., & Liederbach, J. (2014). Digital crime and digital terrorism . Prentice Hall Press.
