Detecting, investigating, and preventing criminal activities has gotten easier and more efficient over the decades thanks to various technological advances.

Of course, this has been counteracted to a degree by the raft of new tactics that crooks have cooked up to deal with the tools, techniques, and tactics at the disposal of modern law enforcement.

The good news is that there is a whole raft of recent developments which are once again causing a revolution in the world of crime-fighting, so let’s discuss some of the most interesting police tech available today to bring you up to speed.

Software that recognizes, tracks, and logs people’s faces

Facial recognition is not a new technology, but it has come on in leaps and bounds from its earliest iterations. We are now at the point where millions of people are scanned using it every day, usually at busy transport interchanges such as train stations.

This allows law enforcement to look out for wanted criminals without needing to manually scour security footage. It also means that if a crime is committed in a public place, identifying the perpetrator is a breeze.

Tools that track and sort through digital evidence

From small businesses to consumers and beyond, cybercrime is a threat we all face. This generates vast amounts of data, so when the authorities are investigating criminal activities, they can’t be expected to trawl through all of this evidence by hand.

This is where public safety software from the likes of NICE Public Safety & Justice comes into play. Modern tools can not only collect digital evidence which is needed to investigate all sorts of crimes but also organize and analyze it with a high level of automation involved.

Such solutions are even useful for everyday crimes that take place in the physical world, because of course all sorts of evidence is captured digitally, from security footage and crime scene photographs to fingerprints and beyond.

Services that function via voice control

In terms of crime-fighting efficiency for law enforcement officers in the field, a great example of this comes in the form of the systems and solutions that can now be implemented using voice commands.

Rather than expecting officers to scrabble around to find physical buttons in their patrol cars, for example, or relying on calls made to dispatchers to get data on the fly, they can issue instructions just by speaking aloud. This means they can keep their attention on the environment around them, and also get on with any other tasks they need to complete, without getting sidetracked or delayed.

Voice-based services can even allow officers to spend less time handling paperwork, because they can simply dictate any notes that they need to take and have these automatically transcribed for them.

Robotized surveillance solutions

Sometimes, law enforcement representatives need to check out areas that are either too hazardous for humans to enter because of environmental factors, or simply impractical for them to reach easily.

This is where robotic devices equipped with cameras enter the fray. From aerial drones to land-based automatons that can patrol the streets, or ascend high structures and go where no person could reasonably get to, on-the-scene evidence gathering and even criminal pursuits can be better-conducted thanks to these technologies and many more.

Final thoughts

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to anti-crime tech that’s built for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. You can rest easy, safe in the knowledge that if you do fall victim to a crime, the authorities have a huge array of tools at their disposal to catch the culprit and bring them to justice.