Strip Searches, Police Power and the Infliction of Harm: An Analysis of the New South Wales Strip Search Regime

Police misuse of strip search powers at music festivals, at train stations, in police vehicles and at other locations has been subject to sustained public attention in recent years. This article traces the evolution of strip search practices in New South Wales, explores the legal and policy context in which they have developed, highlights the individual and social harms arising from them and discusses the need for fundamental law reform. We argue that recent controversies regarding police strip searches and drug detection dog operations in New South Wales show policing to be simultaneously a law-making and a law-abusing power. By examining concepts concerned with how police construct their own working rules, police data and testimony provided to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC), we explain how police justify conducting strip searches that should otherwise be considered unlawful.

Application of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems in Police Vehicles

Motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of injuries and deaths for police officers. Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are driving control systems that have been found to improve civilian drivers’ safety; however, the impact of ADAS on police officers’ driving safety has yet to be investigated thoroughly. Disparities between driver states and tasks performed while driving between police and civilian drivers necessitate this distinction. This study identified the types of ADAS used in police vehicles, their impact on officers’ safety, and proposed potential future ADAS features to be implemented in police vehicles. A systematic literature review was conducted using Google Scholar, Compendex, Web of Science, Transport Research International Documentation (TRID), and Google Patents databases to identify the most prevalent police vehicles used in the U.S., available ADAS features in those vehicles, and the impact of ADAS on officers’ safety. A list of recommended ADAS features was developed based on the review of literature, authors’ knowledge and experience in the field, and the findings of an online survey with 73 police officers. Results indicated the addition of multiple ADAS features including the front vehicle detection system, intersection collision avoidance, evasive steering systems, left turn assist, traffic sign detection system, traffic jam assist, two lane and lane-ending detection, wrong-way alert, and autonomous highway driving features have the potential to improve officer safety and performance while driving. However, there was a void of studies focused on ADAS effects on police driving safety which needs to be addressed in future investigations.

A dialectical approach to the politics of learning in a major city police organization

In this paper we develop a dialectical approach to the organizational politics of learning, exploring complexity, tensions and asymmetries. Turning this kaleidoscopic lens on our empirical setting, a major city police organization, we mix the blue light of police vehicles into Driver’s (2002) ‘fluorescent’ light of office workplaces, fragmenting the brightness of ‘Utopian sunshine’ and the darkness of ‘Foucauldian gloom’ perspectives on organizational learning, and making visible a wider spectrum of political colours of learning. We identify four interdependent political modalities of learning: empowering, coercive, insurgent and palliative and explore how they interplay in complex and contradictory ways. We note that, whilst mainstream and critical literatures tend to focus on organizational learning as, respectively, empowering and coercive, and to a lesser extent insurgent, much of the politics of learning in our study converges in the palliative modality, where the emphasis is on learning-to-cope (rather than learning-to-thrive, learning-to-comply or learning-to-resist). We show that the palliative modality of learning is in many ways an outcome of the dynamic and complex engagement between the other three modalities. We discuss the implications of our findings for a more nuanced understanding of learning as political, and of the relationship between organizational learning and power.

Towards a Collaborative Model to Assist People with Disabilities and the Elderly People in Smart Assistive Cities

People with disabilities and the elderly face difficulties to fulfill their accessibility needs in their daily life routines, mainly when they have an emergency demanding speedy and specific assistance. This article proposes the SafeFollowing, a collaborative model to help people with disabilities and the elderly in smart assistive cities. The main contribution of this work is the specification of a decentralized model of ubiquitous accessibility, which involves public agents and volunteers to attend the users’ requests. SafeFollowing also allows the use of police vehicles mapping, in order to provide a specific follow-up in adverse situations of daily life. The model was validated through experiments in real case scenarios by 14 public agents and 11 elderly and people with disabilities. The results showed that 100% of evaluators (users and agents) stated that the model was useful and 82% of users and 100% of agents considered that SafeFollowing was easy to use. The experiments also allowed the learning of 5 relevant lessons on technological and usability aspects of SafeFollowing that are recorded in this article.

Software engineering based self-checking process for cyber security system in VANET

Newly, the cyber security of Vehicle Ad hoc Network (VANET) includes two practicable: Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), that have been considered due to importance. It has become possible to keep pace with the development in the world. The people safety is a priority in the development of technology in general and particular in of VANET for police vehicles. In this paper, we propose a software engineering based self-checking process to ensure the high redundancy of the generated keys. These keys are used in underlying cyber security system for VANET. The proposed self-checking process emploies a set of NIST tests including frequency, block and runs as a threshold for accepting the generated keys. The introduced cyber security system includes three levels: Firstly, the registration phase that asks vehicles to register in the system, in which the network excludes the unregistered ones. In this phase, the proposed software engineeringbased self-checking process is adopted. Secondly, the authentication phase that checks of the vehicles after the registration phase. Thirdly, the proposed system that is able to detect the DOS attack. The obtained results show the efficient performance of the proposed system in managing the security of the VANET network. The self-checking process increased the randomness of the generated keys, in which the security factor is increased.

Effects of Mobile Computer Terminal Configuration and Level of Driving Control on Police Officers’ Performance and Workload

Objective The objective of this study was to assess police officers’ performance and workload in using two mobile computer terminal (MCT) configurations under operational and tactical driving conditions. Background Crash reports have identified in-vehicle distraction to be a major cause of law enforcement vehicle crashes. The MCT has been found to be the most frequently used in-vehicle technology and the main source of police in-vehicle distraction. Method Twenty police officers participated in a driving simulator-based assessment of driving behavior, task completion time, and perceived workload with two MCT configurations under operational and tactical levels of driving. Results The findings revealed that using the MCT configuration with speech-based data entry and head-up display location while driving improved driving performance, decreased task completion time, and reduced police officers’ workload as compared to the current MCT configuration used by police departments. Officers had better driving but worse secondary task performance under the operational driving as compared to the tactical driving condition. Conclusion This study provided an empirical support for use of an enhanced MCT configuration in police vehicles to improve police officers’ safety and performance. In addition, the findings emphasize the need for more training to improve officers’ tactical driving skills and multitasking behavior. Application The findings provide guidelines for vehicle manufacturers, MCT developers, and police agencies to improve the design and implementation of MCTs in police vehicles considering input modality and display eccentricity, which are expected to increase officer and civilian safety.

Cloud-Based Vehicle Tracking System

The need for vehicle tracking system in real time is growth continues due to increase the cases of theft. This type of system in real time needs to transmit large data with huge number of HTTP request to the server to keep tracking and monitoring in real time, thus causes spend extremely high cost every month for transportation the information on tracking vehicles to server therefor the needs for reducing the number of transportation and data size that transmits in each HTTP request to save expenses. This paper designed and implement an integrated vehicle tracking system in real time to track vehicle anywhere and anytime. This system is divided into two parts: vehicle tracking part and monitoring part. Tracking part is represented by installation the electronic devices in the vehicle using modern Global Positioning System (GPS), microcontroller Arduino UNO R3 and SIM800L GSM/GPRS modem. GPS is determined location of the vehicle via received coordinates from satellites such as latitude and latitude with accuracy ranging approximately 2.5 meters; the coordinates faked to add a type of protection to information on vehicles without effecting on characterizing real time tracking before sending it via a General Packet Radio service (GPRS). The monitoring part is in the cloud and will receive the coordinates and displays it on a map in a web page. The main contribution of this system is it reduced data size that sent from in-vehicle device via selected only necessary data for tracking vehicle from NEMA sentences of GPS and reduced number of HTTP request that sent to remote server via constrain the transmission of information with the movement of vehicles, since when vehicle moved the coordinates each 10s and did not send anything when the vehicle stopped thus will reduce the cost of expenses every month. This system can be utilized to track and monitoring the vehicles of large universities, companies, organization and also can be used in army vehicles and police vehicles.

Diagnosis of the Optimum Location of the Police Vehicle Central Console — Oculometric Tests

In the publication, the authors refer to the study carried out as a part of the research project: “Classification of the Police vehicles according to their destination, taking into account their purpose and standardization of the vehicle central console, in the field of arrangement and installation of ICT systems and the devices controlling special purpose signals”, implemented by a scientific consortium, funded by the National Centre for Research and Development. The described research involved the determination of the optimal location for the central console of the Police service vehicle. The first part of the publication contains partial results of the questionnaire surveys that were carried out among the users of Police vehicles. The second part discusses the research carried out with the participation of the Police officers driving the vehicles. The simulator was used to test vehicles in typical and extreme conditions, located at the Police Academy in Szczytno. The research consisted in the use of an oculometer, installed in the simulator. Conclusions from the conducted research allowed to propose an optimal location of the vehicle central console. The indicated location in the assessment of the research team allows to minimize the risk of the occurrence of hazards, related to the need to take the business vehicle away from the road, and is therefore appropriate to ensure the optimal level of safety for the driver and other road users. The results of the research carried out, after their confrontation with the results of the study conducted by other participants of the research consortium, will allow to propose a solution that can significantly improve safety, ergonomics and comfort of official duties performed by the drivers of the serivice vehicles.