The E-Policing is new way of bringing Community Policing to the Internet. The KPK E-Policing project enables Community Policing Officers to e-mail newsletters, crime trends and other important information to you. There are several ways to get crime and call for service information using IT services in KPK.

Use of Information Technology in Police Services is a critical task while most of the employees

are not well aware of use of technology. But somehow they accepted the use of IT in their

services and responded well to this era of technology. The use of technology enables them to do

their job and tasks quite easily with some major and minor challenges regarding use of

technology and expertise for the use. Study will raise the hidden truths of Police and use of

technology in response to Police reforms by KPK Government. Study will also describe many

cultural assumptions and traditional policing practices unchallenged. Further study will find out

whether the use of technology can provide the efficient use of service or not? How much data

regarding police service is managed quite well? Does the quality of service is improved or not

etc.

Police have generally responded well to the information technology age. However, this study has

shown that, while information technology may have enabled police to do some existing tasks

better, it has not yet led to major changes in how the Queensland Police Service (QPS) deals

with crime and disorder issues. Our conclusion is that information technology has transformed

the structural conditions of policing in the Service in some important ways, while leaving many

cultural assumptions and traditional policing practices unchallenged. The experience of the QPS

illustrates the more general point that giving police access to computers, increasing the range

and quantity of information that is stored electronically and automating what were previously

manual processes will not change how the business of policing is conducted by the agency. If

police agencies are to get a better return on their investment in IT, there needs to be a conscious

and sustained effort to change the organisational settings into which that technology is being

introduced. It is very important that the focus of planning for information technology is on

assisting policing organisations to get where they should be, rather than simply on streamlining

and thereby entrenching established practices.

Research questions This research report analyses the impact of information technology on policing, using the QPS as

a case study. It examines the extent to which the implementation of information technology has

modified the accountability structure and the occupational culture of policing and whether

information technology has significantly altered police practices at the street, supervisory and

management levels. More generally, the research explores the potential and limits of technology

as a tool for police reform.

The major research questions addressed are:

1. How has information technology been received by members of the police organization? What

are the organizational consequences of such acceptance or resistance?

2. To what extent has the introduction of information technology changed the way routine work

is conducted by police officers? How does its impact vary according to functional area (e.g.

general duties, traffic, and criminal investigation) and geographical location?

3. How does information technology affect supervisory and management practices within the

police organization? To what extent has information technology been used by managers to

implement or monitor policy?

4. To what extent has information technology achieved its intended objectives?

5. What impact does information technology have on the level and form of accountability in

policing?

A review of the literature shows that there has not been a great deal of research into the impact of

information technology on police organizations. The available evidence indicates that

information technology has offered a mixture of benefits, led to some fundamental changes and

brought with it some unintended consequences. The

important message from the literature is that technology should not be seen as purely technical

and physical it can shape social life but is itself modified by social and organizational conditions. The impact of technology on policing is dependent on how technology interacts with

existing cultural values, management styles, work practices and technical capabilities.

The introduction of information technology has brought with it a number of practical and technical problems for police. The vast majority of survey respondents told the researchers that they had experienced problems with the information systems frequently (34%) or occasionally (61%). These problems also dominated much of the focus-group discussions. The most frequently reported problems were associated with the performance of the systems. These ranged from planned or unplanned downtime and access difficulty to software and hardware problems. Focus-group discussions suggested that poor system performance was caused or exacerbated by: the inadequacy of computer equipment, both in availability and in power; the lack of integration of the systems; and severe communications backlog in relation to CRISP. There was also some concern with the accuracy of the data, especially the inconsistent use of CRISP codes, as well as various minor design flaws. While respondents reported being generally satisfied with the training and support services associated with information technology, senior officers were less likely to find training adequate but more likely to report satisfaction with support services than junior officers. One significant finding was the high percentage of respondents, especially among the senior ranks, who reported that they learnt to use information technology through informal methods such as trial and error and informal help from colleagues, rather than through formal training. It is not clear from the survey whether senior officers did not have adequate access to formal training or they preferred to not make use of the available formal training. We estimated that 1 in 10 officers did not receive any formal training in information technology. This could be due to a number of reasons, including the inability to use CBT because of inadequate equipment or poor computer literacy, lack of motivation, time constraints, inappropriate timing relevant to the release and/or use of the program, lack of coordination, or insufficient time to train staff before the statewide introduction of new technology.

Many of the technical problems that were raised by survey respondents and focus group participants in this research echoed results of the annual surveys of operational police and managers conducted by the IMD. Findings reported in 1997 (QPS, 1997), for example, suggested that, while the majority (72%) felt that the performance of the computer systems had improved, more than half (58%) thought that the computer system had performed poorly or inadequately during the year. Poor performance was attributed to downtime, lack of system integration, lack of training and lack of computers. While in 1997 operational polices satisfaction with many IMD services had improved, the majority of respondents were only partially satisfied with the services. Furthermore, as few as 35 per cent felt that their level of knowledge of general policing systems was good, while 2025 per cent said that their knowledge of such systems was poor. We have seen in this chapter that, in spite of all the problems encountered, police who participated in the study showed little resistance to the technology. Only a small proportion (16%) reported avoiding some aspects of the systems. In the main, police officers appeared to have accepted information technology as a useful tool for their work. Far from being Luddites in the Information Age, officers saw more powerful, faster and more accessible technology as the answer to their problems. This acceptance signals a potential transformation of the workplace and the organization as a whole. The impact of information technology on the QPS as an organization is the subject of the next chapter. Literature Review:

Traditionally, business organisations introduce information technology to further their business goals: to gain a

competitive edge, to improve performance, to facilitate new forms of management, or to develop new business

potentials (Earl 1989, p. 8).

In policing, technological changes are driven by three analogous imperatives: to improve effectiveness and

efficiency, to meet the requirements of new forms of police management and accountability, and to satisfy the

demand of external agencies for information.

In E-Policing, there are three main aspects of Technology Inclusion,

One is to Improve Effectiveness and Efficiency, 2nd

is to introduce new forms of Police Management System and

Accountability, while 3rd

is satisfaction level of general users involved in policing.