Tracking of Police Patrol

• In Event: Police Officers on the Job: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Despite its long history, little has been done over the years to systematically and accurately track police patrols. Practitioners and police scholars alike are generally unable to tell what dosage is or should be applied to routine or special police operations, especially when it comes to directed and preventative patrol. Given the state of knowledge about tracking mechanisms and their consequences, we first review tracking mechanisms of patrol, historically as well as contemporary. Police attempts to track patrol moved on a sliding spectrum of capacity, ranging from a beat system, through personal radios and ABC Surveys, to advanced GPS trackers. Importantly, technological advancements in tracking potentials have thus shifted the focus from technical concerns about the feasibility of tracking, into larger policy questions. Therefore, the second aim of this paper is to contextualize more broadly the contemporary use of tracking within police culture, specifically in the framework of accountability and surveillance. While surveillance is adversely-viewed by police officers and can therefore be resisted, tracking can also enhance personal and organizational accountabilities, which are often perceived as positive outcomes of tracking. We show how police must be attuned to these opposing consequences, when considering the implementation of tracking mechanisms.

Authors

• Neil Wain, University of Cambridge

• Barak Ariel, Cambridge University / Hebrew University