Challenges and Changes in Police Work

 

I recommend reading the whole article. This police officer has gone through the last twenty years, some of the most turbulent years in the history of policing. His observations are enlightening and intelligent.

 

James Pilant

 

A Frontline Officer on Challenges and Changes

 

Entering my third decade in policing, I had an epiphany about how much my profession has changed since I learned to write reports on manual typewriters in my 1989 recruit class. Like every other industry, policing has seen such dramatic changes that what we imagine for the next 20 years is as surreal as the idea of people travelling to space on paid space shuttles was two decades ago. Two decades ago society would not have tolerated the idea of conducting business from home and having meetings as avatars in virtual environments, yet many businesses now operate this way.

 

Law enforcement has evolved from paper reports and filing cabinets, to body worn cameras and global positioning in a digitally connected universe. Most North Americans use smart phones that connect them immediately with information that we could not have imagined in previous decades. Police officers now must assume that an action they take in the street may be replaying in the media before they get back to the office to write a report about it.

 

In the 24 years of my own policing career, I’ve had a front-row seat to the changes that have occurred and have witnessed how these changes present challenges that cross every industry and  confront administrators in both the public and private sectors. Two decades ago administrators made decisions about what information to release, whereas now they must manage information that is already out there.

 

– See more at: http://www.mqup.ca/blog/frontline-officer-challenges/#!

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, The Thin Blue Line.

 

http://thinbluelineuk.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-are-5-biggest-challenges-facing.html

 

WHAT ARE THE 5 BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING POLICE FORCES TODAY?

 

 

On a police networking site recently, the above question sparked a mass

of interesting responses from all ranks and many from outside parties.

Here at http://thinbluelineuk.blogspot.com/

we are asking the same questions. We would be particularly keen to hear

from front line officers from all forces with their informed views.

Imagine you had the opportunity to have your views heard, without

recrimination, by Theresa May and Nick Herbert. We will collate the

responses and forward them to Theresa and Nick and let you know the

outcome. We will also be asking these questions on other forums such as Police Oracle and would be keen to elicit the support of police blog sites.

 

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