How personal defence gadgets, tactical weapons and speedy smart vehicles assist those enforcing the law

WORDS AILSA HARVEY

In police departments all over the world, officers need to be prepared for any emergency. Whether it involves suiting up in armour to tackle rioting mobs, safely alerting road users of diversions or launching into a high-speed car chase, the latest developments in all necessary equipment need to be available. In almost every stage of attending to a case, a police officer will rely on specially designed technology to make their evidence, arrests and convictions as fair as possible.

Police officers can’t be everywhere at once. Before cameras were invented and made readily available, arrests could only be made by the luck of an observation or through word of mouth alone. Today, permanent surveillance cameras on city streets and roads make it more difficult for criminals to get away with their nefarious acts. And now the number of police drones being deployed to record activity in criminal hotspots is on the rise too.

Even if a criminal isn’t spotted at the scene of a crime or has made a swift getaway, biometric databases make multiple offenders easier to track down. Fingerprints and DNA samples are analysed by forensic teams, while facial recognition cameras can alert police departments when a wanted individual passes by any security camera.