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Police Information Technology: Assessing the Effects of Computerization on Urban Police Functions
Author(s) -
Nunn Samuel
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/0033-3352.00024
Subject(s) - officer , per capita , administration (probate law) , business , population , traffic police , information technology , public administration , political science , sociology , law , demography
Municipal police agencies are major users of information technology, and much remains to be learned about the effects of computerization on police operations. This article examines computerization in 188 municipal police agencies in 1993 in cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Relationships among computer hardware, police‐file computerization, and police functions are examined. Cities are categorized as low, medium, and high levels of computerization to uncover differences in expenditures and police‐officer allocation. Personal computers and mainframes supported file computerization of management and administration, throughput, and crime evidence. Management and administration files influenced computerization of police functions, particularly for management and crime solutions. Highly computerized cities reported larger shares of employees in technical positions, spent more per capita, and reported fewer officers per capita than cities with lower computerization levels. These relationships held after controlling for independent influences such as density, fiscal capacity, crime levels, and population.