Program Profile: The Impact of Mobile Technology Devices on Street Checks and Crime Incidents (Australia)

The mobile device and software for this program were developed to enable frontline police officers to access police database records and upload timely and accurate information while out in the field. This program is rated Promising. The program led to statistically significantly increases in the total number of recorded street checks, the total number of recorded driving offenses, and the number of drug offenses (possession and use) recorded per month by police officers.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes at least one high-quality randomized controlled trial.

Program Goals

A mobile technology device and software (street check app) were developed to enhance the efficiency and safety of frontline police officers in Australia by providing the capability to access and upload timely and accurate information while out in the field. Street checks (also known as police stops or stop-and-frisk encounters between police and the public) are a tool police use to detect and respond to crime in the field. Australian law allows police to stop an individual and ask them questions. Police can ask a member of the public to provide their name and address and then record this information if they find a person committing a crime, suspect that the person has committed a crime, or think that the person can assist them with their investigation. Ordinarily, officers without the mobile technology devices would call into communications centers or return to the station for access to information that could assist with street checks. Officers without devices would also be required to go back to the station to enter paper records of street checks into a police database, upload incident reports, attach files, and send emails. The mobile technology device and street check app allow officers to record information on persons, vehicles, and locations of interest and retrieve information while out in the field.

Program Components

The mobile device technology consists of a tablet and associated software application that the police agency specialist unit and their vendors developed in house, which facilitates the recording and retrieval of information during street checks. The mobile device technology gives officers access to a street check app, corporate emails, the internet, and secure file transfers.

The street check app provides officers with immediate access to—and the ability to record information in the field on—persons, vehicles, and locations of interest directly from the mobile device. Information retrievable from the street app included flags and photos from the police agency records and information management system, the Department of Transportation, and other key agencies across different police jurisdictions. The device also provided officers with the ability to issue incident reports and view domestic violence orders.

The street check app on the mobile device allows officers to immediately enter a record of a police officer stop into the police database. The street check app captures the location of the street check, the time of contact, the name of the individual who was stopped; the individual’s personal information such as their address, a description, vehicle information, and any associates; and the reason for the street check. Police also are allowed to record observations of individuals or their vehicles into the street check app without face-to-face contact during a street check or investigation. Once an officer has entered an individual’s identity into the street check application all associated information from police or other agencies databases is made available to the officer on their mobile devices.

Study

Bedford and colleagues (2021) conducted a randomized controlled trial design, clustered by police region, to assess the efficacy of police officer use of a mobile technology device, and a street check app, on street checks and reported crime incidents in Australia. The mobile technology device was implemented in Australia from April 2014 to January 2016, during which time 4,100 mobile devices were given to road police and rapid-action patrol groups. In March 2016, another 1,300 mobile devices were implemented with frontline police officers. This study included 1,054 mobile devices implemented from late April to middle July 2016. Police officers across five police regions (N = 3,547) were allocated randomly to the intervention group (n = 1,227), which was assigned the mobile technology device, or to the comparison group (n = 2,225), which was not assigned a device.

Participants in the intervention group were male (73.3 percent), held the rank of Constable (59.9 percent), and were on average 37 years old. Participants in the comparison group were male (73 percent), held the rank of Constable (56 percent), and were on average 37 years old. No significant differences were found between the two groups at baseline.

Police agency administrative data were retrieved to compare officers with and without mobile devices (including the street check app) on the number of street checks performed per month and crime incidents (driving offenses, type 2a unregistered uninsured, type 2b driving while disqualified, type 2b driving while unlicensed, public nuisance, drunk driving, drugs possession/use, assault, burglary, domestic violence, and assault/resist/evade police). For the CrimeSolutions review of this study, the outcomes of interest were the total number of street checks performed per month, the total number of driving offenses reported per month, and the number of drug possession/use instances reported per month. The study used 6 months of pre- and post-intervention data to evaluate the outcomes. All variables were recorded as the total number of instances per month, for each officer.

Several difference-in-difference (DID) tests with a negative binomial approach were performed. This analysis included time (street checks and incidents reported 6 months both pre- and post-device introduction), condition (control and intervention), and an interaction DID variable: condition × time. The study did not conduct a subgroup analysis.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile: