NEW AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
With the rise of technological innovation, technology-based crimes have grown in number, complexity and sophistication. As a result, today’s criminal justice professionals need to have a solid understanding of law enforcement tools used to combat these types of crimes.
Future trends in policing are likely to include continued reliance on the following types of technology:
- Suspect identification tools, including facial recognition, in-vehicle computer searches, biometrics, rapid license plate scanning technologies, social media and big data
- GPS technologies and surveillance drones
- Rapid license plate scanning technologies
- Body cameras, for greater community transparency
- Law enforcement robots for dangerous tasks or repetitive work
- Advanced 911 technology that can work with texts, photos, videos and more
Many of these solutions would have sounded far-fetched just a few decades ago, but they are now a reality for law enforcement, investigations, parole and probation, and enforcement personnel.
CHANGING JOB ROLES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Criminal justice personnel are experiencing changes to their roles in several important ways.
Rather than simply reacting to criminal activity, predictive police work is growing in popularity and effectiveness. Predictive policing uses artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to identify the risks for potential crimes and implement preventive measures.
For police officers and other law enforcement personnel, an increased call for public transparency is continuing to change the way criminal justice professionals interact with their communities. In addition to using technologies such as body cameras, law enforcement and other criminal justice employers are turning to social media to build and foster relationships with the public.
While the use of law enforcement robots and other technologies is expanding, there will still be a need for skilled, dedicated criminal justice professionals to fill a variety of roles including law enforcement, security personnel, fraud examiners, investigators, parole and probation officers, corrections officers, border patrol professionals, and much more. These predicted future trends in criminal justice give rise to a need for more trained professionals, not fewer.
START YOUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE CAREER ON THE RIGHT FOOT
If you have decided to earn a degree and pursue a career in criminal justice, understanding how these future trends in law enforcement and other criminal justice roles are likely to impact you can help you achieve future success.
Generations College in Chicago offers an associate degree in Criminal Justice, designed to teach tomorrow’s criminal justice professionals to succeed. To explore this exciting program or any of our other online or on-campus degree programs, simply contact us. If you have decided to take the next step toward realizing your criminal justice career goals, apply online today!