Trending Topics

How LAPD is using technology to improve safety, transparency and engagement

Telematics, video and social media are part of a multi-faceted strategy to enhance officer safety, improve transparency and increase community engagement

LAPD_telematics.jpg

As part of LAPD’s continued effort to eliminate preventable traffic collisions, the department has integrated an advanced telematics system into patrol vehicles assigned to Hollywood Area.

Photo/LAPD

By Chief Charlie Beck, P1 Contributor

When I joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1975, the most advanced technology we had on patrol was the radio inside our police vehicles. We were still years away from having ASTROS, which were the first iteration of handheld radios; and any officer who found themselves needing to request additional resources to address a situation was going to have to first make it back to their vehicle before the cavalry could be called in.

During that era, officers who considered themselves tactically advanced would hang the radio microphone outside of their vehicle’s window when they left it to answer a call for service. Those officers firmly believed that, in the event they needed to broadcast a help call, the seconds saved by not having to open the door and sit down to access the radio could prove critical to their survival. This practice was not universally accepted though. Within the ranks there were an equal number of officers who vehemently maintained that hanging the radio out of the window was an invitation for someone to cut the microphone from its cord and remove the only means for getting help. As with many topics in policing, the only thing that ended the debate was the emergence of something new rendering the previous arguments obsolete.

During my more than 40-year tenure, each new device, means of data collection and form of communication that was introduced to the department was the source of similar discussion regarding how to best integrate it into our already established policing techniques. The discussion, and the related field testing, has proven critical to determining which technologies were broadly integrated into the department and which ones were abandoned.

Ultimately, the technology LAPD has adopted has aided us in our continued efforts to enhance the safety of our officers, improve our overall transparency as a department, and increase our efficacy at developing relationships with the community.

Using telematics technology to manage vehicle risks

As law enforcement professionals, we are subject to a high level of scrutiny and oversight. This is due in part to the fact that, unlike less dangerous professions, increased oversight in law enforcement can be the deciding factor in whether we go home at the end of a shift or not. As law enforcement professionals, we are all too familiar with annual statistics regarding the number of officers who die in on-duty traffic collisions each year. While many of these deaths are due to actions beyond the involved officers’ control, there are still others that are due to preventable factors like failing to wear a seatbelt, not activating the vehicle’s emergency lights and sirens, and overdriving.

As part of LAPD’s continued effort to eliminate preventable traffic collisions, we have integrated an advanced telematics system into patrol vehicles assigned to Hollywood Area. The telematics system tracks, in real time, numerous aspects of vehicle function including the speed of the vehicle, whether seatbelts are in use, if the light bar is activated and how hard the driver is braking. The captured data is immediately available to the watch commander and allows them to monitor driving behaviors and intervene when they notice actions that are placing the driver and his or her partner at elevated risk for a collision.

The availability of such information has allowed supervisors assigned to Hollywood to be more effective risk managers. Rather than wait for a collision to address potentially dangerous behaviors, the supervisors are able to engage in proactive conversations with the officers. Additionally, the awareness that their actions can be monitored has helped to shift officer behavior.

The collective impact of the increased oversight from supervisions and self-awareness from officers has been demonstrated by the significant decrease in officer-involved traffic collisions within the pilot group.

Using body-worn camera and in-car video to enhance transparency

Having numbers supporting the efficacy of a technology is not enough to truly integrate it into the fabric of the department. There is a fundamental need for specific policies related to a new technology’s use, as well as the need for those policies to be reflective of the goals of the department. In the case of body-worn and digital-in-car video, our goal from the onset was to use both devices as tools to enhance transparency and increase police efficiency. By having access to video from critical incidents, officers were no longer limited to their memory of an event when speaking with investigators.

The officers’ ability to review video prior to making official statements led to increased thoroughness in the investigation and greater certainty in the validity of the adjudications. It did not, however, have the desired effect of building the public’s the trust in the department. This was due in large part to the fact that the initial department policy regarding body-worn and digital-in-car video prohibited the release of the officers’ videos to the public.

As of March 2018, LAPD has amended its policy regarding the release of officers’ videos. Unless there is a specific and articulable reason for delaying the release, relevant videos related to critical incidents will be made available to the public within 45 days of the incident. Because the department recognizes that a video may not capture everything, the videos will be placed in context and tell the complete story, as we understand it, at the time of their release.

This new policy is a reflection of the evolution in our collective understanding of how officers’ videos can be utilized. When given context, and supported by the available evidence, the release of the video footage will allow for a more open and timely discussion of something that is of great interest to the public. In fostering that discussion, the department’s video initiative will take a significant step forward in meeting its intended goal of increased transparency.

Using social media for community engagement

For the Los Angeles Police Department, an important aspect of increasing transparency has been finding new and more effective ways to communicate with a public that is moving away from traditional forms of media. We have found our greatest success in social media platforms that offer the department a way to not only disseminate information, but also engage in a conversation with the public.

https://twitter.com/LAPDChiefBeck/status/988494358994456576

Initially, we did not take full advantage of the conversational aspect of social media. When each major entity within the department began rolling out various social media accounts, our intent was to use the accounts as a means for directing information outward. As we have begun to embrace using social media platforms as a means for creating a dialogue, we have found increased engagement with segments of the public that previously had limited awareness of or contact with the department. The increased positive contacts with these segments of the population are a critical part of our ongoing efforts to build community trust.

https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ/status/988555479252004864

Like the transition from vehicle radios to ASTROS, it is readily apparent that technology will continue to be critical to the advancement of law enforcement safety, transparency and efficacy. The only questions that remain are what those next technological advancements will be and how readily we will be able to integrate them in a way that makes a meaningful and positive impact in the communities we serve.


About the Author
Chief Charlie Beck was appointed chief of the Los Angeles Police Department in November 2009. Chief Beck oversees the third largest police department in the United States, managing 10,000 sworn officers and 3,000 civilian employees, encompassing an area of 473 square miles, a population of approximately 3.8 million people and an annual budget that exceeds one billion dollars.

Having facilitated his predecessor’s successful reengineering and reform effort, Chief Beck continues to evolve and refine those strategies. Major components of this endeavor include the mitigation of crime, the reduction of gang violence, the containment of terrorism, adoption and integration of new and emerging technologies throughout the Department, and the continuation of the reforms that brought the Department into compliance with the Consent Decree.

Chief Beck is a second-generation Los Angeles police officer. Two of Chief Beck’s children are also Los Angeles Police Department officers.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU