Summary
"This thesis examines how the democratization of technology can enhance intelligence-led policing and serve the community. The research compares the models of community policing and intelligence-led policing and considers how the leveraging of social media platforms and personal surveillance cameras can improve police intelligence collection and enhance relationships with the community. While research supports intelligence-led policing to be effective in crime reduction, intelligence-led policing may also produce unexpected benefits when coupled with mainstream technologies serving as a bridge to the people living in those communities. These technologies can create collaborative opportunities and roles of empowerment for citizens’ personal safety, thus potentially increasing police legitimacy and fostering more democratic and participatory communities. By incorporating the best of community policing, such as its goals of relationship-building and improving police legitimacy, with the crime reduction capabilities of intelligence-led policing, we might call this community-enhanced intelligence-led policing. With this combination of values and positive outcomes, law enforcement may achieve the desired benefits of each model."--Page v.