Still, electronic tracking has become a fact of life today for everyone who uses a cell phone, credit card, ATM or E-ZPass. We swipe a card to get into the parking lot, pick up a sandwich at the deli, rent a movie or get the car fixed. And that's not even counting all the electronic images made of our comings and goings by the forest of video surveillance cameras set up inside most banks, stores, public buildings and, increasingly, along the roads we drive. All that information is stored indefinitely and becomes a permanent record of where we've been.
Perhaps it's little wonder some cops are uneasy at the prospect of being scrutinized by the same technology they normally use to keep an eye on the rest of us. They should get over it, especially since the obvious benefits so clearly outweigh the drawbacks: Not only will the new equipment give the department a precise tool for analyzing deployment patterns and determining manpower needs, it will also allow commanders to quickly scramble the units nearest to a trouble spot and, if anything should go wrong, immediately send assistance to officers in trouble. We imagine some cops might even be grateful for a little second-guessing from headquarters if it ends up saving their lives.
