By Bud Levin

Bernard H. "Bud" Levin, Ed.D, PFI Director of Research & Development & Vice Chairman of the Futures Working Group (FWG), attended the 109th IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) in Minneapolis in October, 2002, along with many of his fellow PFI colleagues. The subject of Bud's presentation was "What the Future of Society and Technology Holds for the Police Executive: Culture and Technology."

Professor Levin talked about three questionable clusters of trends he sees
in U.S.society:

1. The strength of individuals,
2. Community policing, crime prevention, and profiling,
3. Technology and change.

1. The strength of individuals.

"Historically, we have valued strength and we have valued protecting the
weak...[but now] Our social structures provide expectations of weakness and
vulnerability, or inability to cope with even mild stressors." People fall
apart too easily, these days, Bud says, because of an inability to cope with
even mild stressors. "Evidence of the loss of individual strength is all
around us."

This "institutionalizing of weakness" has changed our societies'
expectations of us -- the police -- Levin contends.

2. Community policing, crime prevention, and profiling.

"Unfortunately, the best path forward is often mapped with little input from
us," Bud quotes a colleague in his section on community policing, crime
prevention, and profiing. The decline of families, single parents, and
poverty due to single parenting have moved us into a "universal palliative
approach" to policing. We used to be focused on crime busting, but then we moved into crime prevention, problem solving, and social support. Admitting that the police "are the only 24/7/365 social service agency," Bud thinks that it has been a bad mistake for police to have stepped into the voids created by failed families and schools.

He thinks too that accusations of racial profiling, real or not, stem from lack of trust. He challenges us, "Think of your own racial, ethnic, or religious group. If the criminal justice system were to lock up three times as many of your group as other groups, would you feel just a little bit vulnerable? A little lacking in trust?"

3. Technology and change.

The policing of cyberspace will increasingly be the province of the private
sector and private police, because it is their domain. The private sector
is not bound by restrictions inherent in public policing such as jurisdiction and politics.

New skills for the police generalist will require more of the employee. However, implementation of the police generalist model will remain severely limited by technology available to law enforcement agencies, always a decade or two behind.

Regional and state consortia will probably be the most feasible option for
police as regards technology, due to political, fiscal, manpower, and legal limitations.

Bud Levin reminds us, though, that we must avoid the temptation to be led by those who have more knowledge about technology than do we. In conclusion, he offers this wisdom, "The more tools we have in our toolbox, the better equipped we will be to cope with and perhaps prevent future problems. We're all in this together -- practitioners, propeller-heads, prognosticators, and politicians -- we all have roles to play."