Question 1
a.
The target five which defines more than 90% of 111 emergency calls answered within 10 seconds as of June 2018 has been taken as a target which has been identified to determine the performance of police in New Zealand. It has been a remarkable record for the police department in New Zealand to fight against the crime and pushing the criminals behind bars in such a less amount of time. The main reason for taking the target is due to the prominent service which the police department serves to the people, and this made the citizens of New Zealand feels very secure and safe (Rogers, 2018). Due to advancement in technology, the police becomes more responsive to the needs of people at the time of emergency, and this also helped the police officials to prevent the number of crimes which generally have a high possibility to take place. On the contrary, the technological factor has been taken into concern as an external trend to critically determine the target about which the whole assessment is dealing with. The technology trend has been analyzed using the ‘PEST” analysis in the following ways. These are:
a. Machines/Software: Speaking about today’s scenario, the Government of New Zealand has imported sufficient technological equipment which can become very useful in delivering the right service to the police department. To achieve this, a considerable number of sophisticated software has been provided to the police team to track the criminals, checking the official records of individuals and other related factors (Beddoe, 2016). This has positively impacted the police department in delivering the right justice to the citizens. Speaking about its future predictions, the advancement in developing the software may require less number of police officials in the department as the automated software can guide the officials more accurately.
b. Increased cost: In today’s world, technology is improving, and it also helps the police department to function in a more precise manner, but it also impacts the functioning of the police department in a negative way (Grant, 2016). This is because increased in automation increases the cost which gets involved in implementing the technology and the Government is forced to allocate a considerable amount of funds in the budget of the police department (Harcourt, 2019).
For example, in July 2019, the “Independent police conduct authority (IPCA)” revealed that the “downlink technology” on the “Air support Unit” increased the flexibility in the functioning of “deployment” and “management” during the pursuits.
b.
According to the “New Zealand police”, the police department must analyze the external opportunity of implementing the technology to better predict the existing function of the technology all over the country. As of now, the police department incorporated a new 24/7 non-emergency crime phone number to all the citizens in the country. Thus, the technology implementation played a significant part in much response of getting the calls from people within a fraction of seconds (Huey et al. 2017). It is highly recommended for the police department to take advantage of implementing technology as an external trend. On the contrary, the risk associated with the up-gradation of technology seems to be very low, and the main benefits lie in its execution. To support this statement, one must get to know that the technology which is currently being used in New Zealand provides the enhanced services to the public by implementing a “nationwide” crime “reporting line” by which the police forces get “devoted” to “frontline preventive policing.”
Thus, the department is working on improvement in such technologies to provide a broader response to both the people of rural and urban areas. In light of this fact, the police must enhance the functioning of “web-based” crime reporting to market their presence in every situation anywhere. [Referred to Appendix 1]
Question 2
a.
There are many ways in which the role of a police officer can be improved using the right technology. The following points critically evaluate these:
a. Big data analytics: The “big data” analytics gained tremendous exposure in the “crime reporting” system throughout the country of New Zealand. It aimed to increase the transparency and provided a clear picture of the system with “comprehensive data reporting.” With the help of this kind of automated software, the police officials get the opportunity to monitor and regulate the key areas, major “data exchanges” and other related factors (Kappeler et al. 2015). In a broad sense, the big data helped in mass recruitment of police personnel in the department by tracking each personnel’s records and identifying their qualifications.
b. Global positioning systems: The “Global positioning systems (GPS)” aids to provide the best service in terms of locating the criminals and making the data more “robust” which ensures that the integrated system of “GPS” collaborates with the regulations and frameworks used by the Judiciary system. This technology has transformed the role of each officer by managing the police forces better by ensuring that most of the critical areas such as cost, risks and guidelines are covered. This also aids in determining the right manpower requirements from time to time.
Figure 1: The two technology tools identified
(Source: Self-created)
b.
Assessment of the work practices
As the survey conducted, it recently states that more than 90% of the emergency calls are answered within just a few seconds. This implies that the communication between the public and police officials has been made much better in such a developing nation by the use of upgraded technology which has been discussed in the earlier sections (Martin et al. 2015). Apart from the improvement in communication, the technique predicts a much secure future for the citizens, which aims to build better trust and relationship between the two parties. Thus, with this clear perspective, it can be said that technology is creating an enormous positive impact on the central role of New Zealand officers.
Trend analysis
The police department of New Zealand brought a revolutionary change in the implementation of technology at the right place by getting involved in ‘Information and communication technology (ICT)” strategic partnerships with various countries throughout the globe. The “Agile development centre” in New Zealand ensured that the software development works as per the current market demand, which can improve the user experience and overall interaction with the police department. Also, the use of “cloud computing” enabled the technological system used by the police to get more engaged with the public, which also helped in developing better “ICT” infrastructure. Thus, it indicates that the impacts are very motivating for the New Zealand police officers (researchgate.net, 2019).
Significance of the trend
The technology advances include the “location-monitoring” devices for locating “high rate offenders” and does the “predictive analysis” and “crime mapping” through the influence of potential software which acts as an instrumental and innovative for the software experts. Research suggests that technological up-gradation has gradually improved the “capabilities” of police. Still, it has not been made clear whether the police officer has enabled the “law enforcement” in the right manner or not. For example, the drastic positive changes in the “DNA technology” and other computer-based “forensic data” has impacted the “clearance rates” to remain relatively “stable” in the mid 21st century.
The improved efficiency depicts that the crimes have been reduced to such a significant rate that technology aids in maintaining the proper system of delivering the right services to the public as well as to the police officials.
Suggestions required
New technology in the communication process must be included to promote data analysis and communication, which has considerable potential for the police forces.
Apart from that, the division of police forces has been made very clear by segmenting the “Information technology” in the right course of manner. Further, the changes made in the political improvement in the economy can also positively affect the technology up-gradation. Thus, there appears to be a need for implementing the change in such a positive direction to share the data efficiently with the aligned partner of New Zealand governments. This can ensure “flexible contracts” with the ‘Information technology” experts to a more secure future for all the citizens of New Zealand (emeraldinsight.com, 2019).
Reference list
Book
Rogers, C., & Frevel, B. (2018). Higher Education and Police. UK, London: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://dlib.scu.ac.ir/bitstream/Hannan/551055/1/9783319583860.pdf [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Journals
Beddoe, L. (2016). A matter of degrees: The role of education in the professionalisation journey of social work in New Zealand. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 26(2-3), 17-28. Retrieved from https://anzswjournal.nz/anzsw/article/download/39/143 [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Grant, E. M. (2016). Designing carceral environments for Indigenous prisoners: a comparison of approaches in Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand, the US and Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat). Retrieved from https://hekyll.services.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/101218/3/hdl_101218.pdf [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Harcourt, B. J. (2019). Social deprivation in New Zealand (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Waikato). Retrieved from https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/12492/thesis.pdf?sequence=4 [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Huey, L., Kalyal, H., & Peladeau, H. (2017). Preparing police recruits of the future: An educational needs assessment. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=sociologypub [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Kappeler, V. E., & Kraska, P. B. (2015). Normalising police militarisation, living in denial. Policing and society, 25(3), 268-275. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/download/40266181/Normalising.pdf [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Martin, P., & Mazerolle, L. (2015). Police leadership in fostering evidence-based agency reform. Policing: a journal of policy and practice, 10(1), 34-43. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.975.7588&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Online article
researchgate.net, (2019), researchgate, Available at researchgate.net/profile/Rodney_Scott3/publication/304629090_Collaborating_for_results_in_New_Zealand_Evaluation_using_mixed_methods_and_triangulation/links/5775acdb08ae1b18a7dfe26a.pdf [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Website
emeraldinsight.com, (2019), emeraldinsight, Available at emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S2053-769720180000030011 [Retrieved on 26.10.2019]
Appendices
Appendix 1: Crime rate in New Zealand
(Source:https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/library-research-papers/research-papers/from-offences-to-victimisations/)