Introduction
New Zealand police is a national police force in New Zealand. It was started in 1840.its headquarters are in Molesworth St, Wellington. Its responsibility is to enforce criminal law, enhance public safety and maintain order. It has 12,000 employees which makes it the largest law enforcement agency in New Zealand. It also deals with traffic and commercial vehicle enforcement, licensing of firearms, dignitaries protection and national security matters (police, 2017)
NZ police has developed four year target which has taken place between 2017 and 2021. One of the targets is to answer more than 90% of 111 emergency calls within 10 seconds (police, 2017)
The impact of rapid technology change is an external factor that NZ police does not have control over them. The only option they have is to embrace it and adopt new technology in their emergency call centre. Advancement in technology has impacted positively and negatively on how police department respond emergencies.
Positive impacts
Technology helps to reduce the time taken to receive, process and communication of information and also giving emergency responders relevant information that will enable them make the best decisions as quickly as possible.
Technology has brought about virtual interaction tools that helps NZ police to minimize the possibility of miscommunications during emergency calls communication. This helps responder to take less time in one call and be able to attend to other callers as soon as possible.
Technology has helped NZ police to develop a very high efficiency electromagnetic which helps them to improve information accuracy during transmission through distortion elimination and as result the responder will be able to provide great service. This also helps them to discover calls which are not serious and the NW police responder will be able to leave it at one and attend to serious emergency calls.
Artificial intelligence has a positive impact on how emergency calls are responded. A new predictive analytic system is used to service recommendations to the responders on appropriate responses to emergency calls which depend on various variables such as location, weather from similar type of call. AI software helps to give priorities and respond more effectively to emergency call request; therefore it helps to improve emergency response time.
The head of emergency call centre in NZ police is able to learn from the real time conversation between the caller and the responders through the help of Ai and they are able to identify whether the responder needs training in order to fasten the period of time that they use to collect details from the caller.
Negative impacts
Technological equipments are prone to virus and hacking that can slow response time or paralyze the whole system. This can be a major setback to NZ police emergency calls department and the station will not be able to deliver.
Emergency technology requires the responders to attain new skills. If they do not have the required skills they will not be able to use the equipments and therefore the emergency calls response time will be slowed down.
How NZ police can take advantage of changes in technology
NZ police can take advantage of change in technology by investing in new ideas, purchase new equipments such as video technology which will allow the call centre to connect with the caller immediately to discuss ideas and share information. The responder will be able to see the background of the caller; therefore they will be able to have a clear view of what is happening.
NZ police can use emergency call centre which is equipped with latest technology which can allow them to recognize the address from which the call has been made. This will help responder to identify the location of the caller and will be able to offer support using a minimal time.
Staff training on how they can react appropriately to help the caller in most efficient way will help them to attain their target of responding to emergency calls within 10 seconds.
NZ police can use forecasting system that will help them to determine the need of adding more staffs in emergency call department.
Performance standard and measurement can help NZ police to ensure that their staffs provide the level of service that is required and they deliver it on time.
Impact of technology on the role of NZ police officer
Technology changes the role of NZ police officer in a way that they become more pro active instead of being reactive. The emergency corresponded will be able to deliver more outbound communication to the caller.
Their role will not be more repetitive by asking the same question to the caller’s. For example through technology they will be able to know the location of the caller instead of asking them.
NZ police officer will be able to respond quickly to an emergency call and spend less time in one call. They will be able to attain the set target for emergency call responding time. For example through emergency video call, the responder will be able to know the situation of the caller by seeing it. This will help them to gather more information in just one view instead of asking the caller questions. This will reduce the time a responder spending in a call.
A police officer can act as a trainer to other responders whereby they share information gathered from an emergency call that might be helpful to them when they receive a call with the same emergency issue. For example if a caller was stuck between two buildings, the responder can share the information on how they helped the victim to come down and how they convinced him/her the help is coming and will be saved.
The use of AI in NZ police has impacted positively on the role of police officer whereby it provides them with more information that help them to handle any complicated issue which cannot be solved by self service. This technology assists emergency call responders who have no experiences to determining whether the caller is agitated, worried or scared.
Impact of technology on job design theory in NZ police
Job design is crucial when it comes to employee motivation, performance and job satisfaction (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). Job design theory helps NZ police management to identify how technology in emergency call centre affects the outcome of the job.
Technology revolution has a dramatic impact on jobs and the labor market since most of the routine and manual tasks are automated thus it replace workers. On the other hand, new technology helps to make emergency call responder tasks to be easy, fast hence they are able to be more productive since they are assisted by some of the technology equipments such as AI. (Gibbs, 2017).
Use of technology in NZ police complements employees by increasing their ability to perfume certain tasks. It changes the job design by re-focusing the employees on tasks that are difficult to automate such as talking with the victim and calming them down and eliminate those tasks that can be easily automated such as accessing the location of the caller.NZ police are required to have advanced skills on technology and that’s why they need training (Gibbs, 2017).
Advance in technology leads to job enrichment in NZ police. Police officer responsibilities will be greater, they will enquire recognition in order to be motivated and create opportunities for growth and development on how they can minimize the response time to 10 seconds. (PERF, 2007).
The police officers have a great access to data, analysis tools and telecommunication that allows them to focus more on social interaction to the caller, collaborate with other parties such as fire extinguishers which results to minimal response time. (Frey & Osbome, 2013).
Technology affects the relative demand for skills that are required to perfume emergency call tasks. Those skills that are associated with tasks that machine can perform have relatively decreased in demand while those that are associated with tasks that can be integrated with the new technology has a rising demand. Therefore, changes in technology have affected the comparative compensation of workers who have different types of skills. The type of skills and wages will be highly correlated (Bresnahan, brynjolfsson & Hitt, 2002).
Artificial intelligence does not replace emergency call dispatcher but it helps them to make great decisions for example, it can help to identify and analyse the caller’s words and other clues to determine whether there is evidence they are having a heart attack and alert the emergency dispatcher who takes them through CPR instructions. This will motivate them and they will be able to deliver and improve their performance and help to attain the target for emergency call response time (Barrus, 2018).
Reference
Barrus, 2018 dispatcher retrieved form www.iaedjournal.org/i-dispatcher/
Bresnahan.T, Brynjolfsson. E & Hitt.M 2002 information technology, workplace organization and demand for skilled labor: firm-level evidence. Quarterly journal of economics 117:1
Frey C. & Osborne the future of employment. How susceptible are jobs to computerization
Gibbs.m, 2017 how is new technology changing job design? Accessed from doi:10.15185/izawol.344
Hackman. J & Oldham. G 1980 Work design
New Zealand police four year plan 2017-2021 retrieved from police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/new-zealand-police-four-year-plan-2017-2021?
REFT 2017 the revolution in emergency communications retrieved from www.policeforum.org/assets/emergencycommunications/