PA Bill Number: HR541
Title: Recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Description: A Resolution recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.
Last Action:
Last Action Date: Sep 27, 2024
Could smart guns make armed police safer and more accountable? :: 07/13/2015
Police officers Loran “Butch” Baker and Elizabeth Butler were investigating a suspect at his home in Santa Cruz, California when he shot and killed them in 2013. Before fleeing the scene, the shooter was believed to have stolen both officers’ guns.
The Santa Cruz sheriff at the time, Phil Wowak, doesn’t think their deaths could have been prevented, but does think the department’s response would have been faster, more efficient and more accountable had they had access to connected technology.
“We would’ve known their firearms had been taken and we would’ve been able to find them much quicker,” Wowak said.
The internet of things – devices such as gun sensors, body cameras and heart monitors – is increasingly being used by US law enforcement. While advocates believe it has the potential to improve officer safety and accountability, the research and development of these connected technologies has a long way to go.
A few months after the deaths of the officers, the Santa Cruz police department was approached by Yardarm, a wireless firearm technology company. The police department carried out early testing of a sensor which slots into the back of an officer’s gun and monitors its movement. If it is unholstered or fired, an alert is sent to the police department, along with the officer’s geolocation.
Yardarm’s vice president of marketing, Jim Schaff, said individual police departments will be able to configure what kind of alert they receive. “If a weapon is discharged, we can even text the chief of police if he’s at home having dinner,” he said.
One of the main draws of being able to track officers in this way, particularly by using body cameras, is the ability to improve police accountability, a matter at the forefront of public concern in the US. The Guardian’s ongoing project to track police killings in the US has recorded over 500 deaths in 2015 so far and predicts that figure will reach 1,100 by the end of the year.
Following the killing of Michael Brown in August by a police officer, activists started a campaign calling for all states to adopt body cameras in their police departments. The US government has also invested in this technology, with the Obama administration providing $75m in matched funds to law-enforcement departments to buy cameras.
Development of the newer technologies, however, is a long way off. The Yardarm sensor currently works using cellular technology, so if the officer is in a blackspot, the signal will not be sent in real time. It will still record what is happening to the gun, but it will not be able to transmit it until it reestablishes cellular contact. The company is also still in its pre-commercial stage and won’t be rolling out to police departments until next year.
The internet of things and how it can be applied to public services is still unchartered territory with little research available. Existing studies on its use in law enforcement are focused primarily on body cameras. Initial findings suggest wearing body cameras is tied to a fall in the use of force and complaints against officers.
The Guardian is counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies this year. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project“There is a hypothesised civilising effect when officers begin wearing cameras.” Michael D White, criminology and criminal justice professor at Arizona State University, said. “That is, citizens and police officers may behave better when being filmed.”
White emphasised, however, that research into the impact of connected technology on police accountability is in its nascent stages. “Much more research is needed to explore these potential opportunities,” he said.
Privacy also remains an unanswered question when it comes to the internet of things. A world in which devices can work away in the background, making decisions and acting on the behalf of their owners, is a world of granular personal data, stored and transmitted on a constant basis. Concerns abound about possible impacts, from car or health insurance denials to the creation of a marketplace for personal data.
Law enforcement is not exempt from such concerns. Police departments already using body cameras are still working out how to use the data. Following a police shooting in Minnesota, the police department decided not to release footage captured by body cameras.
While privacy concerns and the intricacies of how these technologies will work remains to be seen, a bigger picture emerges. There could come a time when a police officer is hooked up to a heart rate monitor, a gun sensor and a body camera, all recording the officer’s movements, interpreting them and feeding back to a central dispatcher as needed.
For this scenario to work most effectively, not only do police departments need to be on board, the companies providing the individual components need to be joined up. Schaff said he is confident the market is moving in the right direction. “All the vendors are working together,” he said. “We’re working with law enforcement to fit into the model that they operate.”
For Wowak, the most attractive aspect of connected technology is protecting officers. “Almost monthly something will come up where this type of tech would benefit the law enforcement officer in the field for safety,” he said.
