Police are increasingly using businesses and minature cameras to surveil Americans.

In Austin, Police Chief Art Acevedo is confronting a different kind of problem: Officers are not waiting for “lagging” public funding to purchase their own miniature video cameras concealed in writing pens.

About 50 officers use the devices, which cost as little as $50 each, to guard against false allegations of misconduct or abuse. Acevedo supports the technology, but this month, his staff scrambled to develop guidelines for the cameras’ use to address potential privacy concerns and other issues.

“Sometimes the (public) funding stream just doesn’t catch up with the available technology,” Acevedo said.

This month, a survey of 70 large police agencies by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington law enforcement think-tank, found that 90% planned to increase their use of various technologies, primarily aimed at deterring crime by adopting more efficient surveillance, patrol and response strategies.

“Departments are looking to technology as a force multiplier,” said Chuck Wexler, the forum’s executive director. “They are using this technology to better manage fewer resources, because just saying, ‘We don’t have enough officers’ isn’t cutting it with the public.”

The forum’s survey found that 86% of agencies used some form of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Nixle to monitor or follow up on leads and potential threats, despite reports that some police employees misuse the sites.

At least 57% of agencies reported dealing with some problem related to employees’ possible misuse of social media sites, according to the forum’s survey.

The abuses include posting inappropriate messages and photographs.


International Association of Chiefs of Police Center for Social Media Link:
http://www.iacpsocialmedia.org/

Link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-04-24-police-crime-technology-facebook.htm?loc=interstitialskip