The effect of ICT in crime and law.

The effect of ICT in crime and law.

Newstories

"Police will use new device to take fingerprinting in street"
Every police force in the UK is to be equipped with mobile fingerprint scanners - handheld devices that allow police to carry out identity checks on people in the street.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/27/project-midas-fingerprint-scanner-liberty

"Anger over police dog with Twitter account"
West Midlands Police have been criticised for setting up a Twitter page for their sniffer dog.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/11227663

"officers to use mobile computers"
Police officers across Cumbria will receive hand-held computers to use while out on patrol. The new technology will enable officers to send and receive information when they are not in the police station, saving them 30 minutes per shift.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/7804281.stm


Speed cameras
As the number of vehicles speeding on the motorways is increasing so is the number of speed cameras on roads across Britain.
Computering is used in speed cameras with three different methods of detecting the speed of a vehicle
The first method used by Gatso and mobile cameras is to send a Laser or Radar beam at the passing vehicle. The beam is then returned back to the speed camera equipment, providing an exact speed.
The second method used by Truvelo and DS2 is too use loops in the road, if the passing vehicle drives too fast over the loops, the speed camera is triggered.
The third method used by SPECS is to take a photograph of all passing vehicles at point 'a', then several hundred metres along the road at point 'b' a second photograph is taken. Both photographs are date and time stamped, the speed camera equipment then calculates your average speed.
All methods involve technology and help the police force give speeding tickets to the people who have broken the speeding limit law.
By the use of these cameras it is helping drivers realise they must slow down or their driving licenses will be taken, they will recieve points on their licence or they will recieve a fine which all helps decrease the chances of the speeding limit laws being broken.

Computer display of the car with speed, distance and time and date shown.

Speed camera flashing as it takes a photo of the car.

Speed cameras mainly have benefits (catching speeding vehicles therefore reducing the number of people speeding in the future)but they have drawbacks too
as they have shown to cause crashes- this is down to flashes making people loose concentration of the road and cars around them and also due to them suddenly spotting the camera and trying to slow down quickly without being caught leading them to have a collision with the car behind from breaking heavily in a short amount of time.
Stationary speed cameras benefit the policing business as they save time about tracking speeding drivers and pulling them over to give them a ticket, saving them time and fuel costs.
They do not benefit the individual themselves as they are obviosuly going to be upset about recieving a fine and perhaps points on their license yet it reminds them to think twice about how fast they will drive in the future. 

Crimes caused by the internet

Many burglaries have occured due to people posting statuses on the social networking site 'Facebook'. When they are out of the house and especially on holiday many people use this oportunity to break into their house. If using an iPhone for updating a Facebook status it also may say youre location of where you are which can trigger more problems as somebody may see you are away from your house. Some people even choose to put their address online in their 'information box' on Facebook this causes more burglaries to occur.

Facebook status thatcould cause burgalries to occue in the person's household!

Hacking can be a major problem now that more people are using the internet to work and save files. Although it is against the law to hack into resistricted, private files many people still choose to do it. This is a major problem for government as many confidentional files for the society are held on databases and contain important private information of the individuals in England. It is also a major issue for large companies with many customers details saved in databases.


Helping stop crime at airports
As terroism has risen within the last few years and knife crime amoung teengers has progressively increased many airports and schools now choose to use equipment to increase security.

Airport security attempts to prevent would-be attackers from bringing weapons or bombs into the airport. If they can succeed in this, then the chances of these devices getting on to aircraft are greatly reduced. As such, airport security serves several purposes: To protect the airport from attacks and crime and to protect the aircraft from attack, and to reassure the travelling public that they are safe.

Some incidents have been the result of travelers being permitted to carry either weapons or items that could be used as weapons on board aircraft so that they could hijack the plane. Travelers are screened by metal detectors. Explosive detection machines used include X-ray machines and Puffer Machines. Explosive detection machines can also be used for both carry on and checked baggage. These detect volatile compounds given off from explosives using gas chromotography. A recent development is the controversial use of Full body scanners to detect hidden weapons and explosives on passengers. These devices, which use Compton scattering, require that the passenger stand close to a flat panel and produce a high resolution image.There are misunderstandings about how x-ray backscatter personnel scanners function, but they do use ionizing radiation and the x-rays emitted from them penetrate skin as well as clothing.


Having airport secuirty benefits the passengers so they feel at ease and secure in the airport and on the aircraft. It benefits the workers from having to physcially search each passenger which would take a long amount of time. It doesnt benefit any passengers that would be carrying a dangerous, harmful object as they may be stopped from flying from the airport, this is unfortunate when the person is innocent and generally did make a mistake in bringing the items in their luggage or had it on them.



CCTV

CCTV stands for Closed Circuit TV. CCTV uses one or more video cameras to transmit video images and sometimes audio images to a/some monitors or video recorder. CCTV uses either wireless transmission or a wired transmission to send the broadcast from the video cameras to the monitor(s) or recording device. Most CCTV systems are used for surveillance which can include security monitoring, spying or for safety monitoring purposes.
CCTV systems have become extremely popular over the last few decades as the technology has improved and become more affordable. The majority of CCTV cameras in use today are usually for surveillance and security purposes. You can find CCTV systems in almost every bank, casino, malls and large department stores.
As they have become much more affordable many households are choosing to use the CCTV cameras for outside their house for secuirty against burglaries and people vandalising their property.
There are many types of CCTV cameras, they can be categorized by the types of images they are able to capture, the amount of frames they can take per minute, the type of connection to the monitor or video recording device, whether they are able to move position, and special functions they can provide.

CCTV benefits many shops, businesses and homeowners as they catch people who stole an item or was vandalising a property. It benefits the police as it means they do not have to take much information from witnesses, saving them time. It benefits other customers and workers as it makes them feel more secure incase there is an attack or a problem with other customers.

CCTV camera in operation.

Monitoring using the cctv footage.

-3 jing videos: china new police technology, CCTV footage and speed camera causes crash-

The knew technology in China will help the police...............

-summary firework airport security-

Interview with my uncle about technology in crime and law situations.

What are your views on speed cameras
1) Have you ever been caught speeding?
2) If so did it prompt you to slow down in the future?
3) Do you think they are effective and make people think for the future?
Yes I have
Yes, the fine made me think twice about speeding again and since then I havent had another ticket.
I think they are effective towards many but not all of the public, it seems some get a thrill from driving fast and just hope they dont get a ticket.

Do you know of any occassions when burglaries have occured due to Facebook statuses saying the user is away from their property?
Yes, a friend posted a Facebook status that they were going away and got burgled whilst they were away - many items with sentimental value from past relatives passed down were stolen aswell as many expensives laptops . The victim then deleted his Facebook account as the police warned him this is how the burglars may have tracked the house, and he didnt want it to reoccur in the future.

Do you feel that security in airports is working to stop terroists and harmful objects making their way onto aircrafts?
Yes. If the security wasnt introduced in airports many attacks would have occured where many deaths may have happened due to bombs/knifes etc being taken onto aircrafts.
If sharp, harmful objects are shown on the monitors from the scans they are immediatly conviscated so very little attacks have occured as the security is so high tech many people cannot get away with breaking the law and rules of taking certain items aboad the aircrafts. 

Does having security in airports make you feel more at ease, secure and safe?
Yes definatly! If it wasnt used I dont think I would travel by air again as I'd feel unsafe and worried.

Have you had a body scan at an airport? If so did you feel targetted that they were picking on you?
Yes, no I didnt feel targetted at all, if that is the way they have to search people to see if they are innocent of carrying harmful items then it has to be done. People shouldnt complain of feel targetted as it is for the safety of all passengers to ensure people are safe at all times in the airport and on the aircraft.

Do you feel CCTV is a positive way of finding criminals stealing and vandalising?
Yes, many people have been put in jail from being caught on CCTV, it has helped many work places and businesses.

Do you have cctv on your property or workplace? If so you feel it works well at stopping crime?
I have it up outside my workplace as graffiti and vandalism has occured. Since it has been up the amount of vandalism has decreased as it has scared away a few who got caught on the camera.

Do you think more technology is needed to reduce/stop crime?
I feel more CCTV should be used in streets and schools. The media shows inncidents when people have been attacked and CCTV could have easily picked up a visual image of the criminal when instead an accident or injury/death has occured.
As many problems have occured in schools with attacks and bullying may schools should now invest in updating CCTV technology and get them fitted up in schools to help capture any misbehaving, violent pupils. Some schools do use CCTV but a very small amount.
As knife crime is rising among students in schools I also think more walk through secuirty scanners should be used to detect the metal of the knifes and any other harmful items, few schools have these and by increasing the amount across schools in Britain I feel it could save many lifes.