Federal Bureau of Investigation - Press Room

BACK TO THE FUTURE
Thinking Past Today's Policing into Tomorrow's World of Danger

02/09/04

Alert: The recent FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin has been hijacked by a bunch of futurists--and it's well worth a look to see how they recommend developing "forecasts and strategies to ethically maximize the effectiveness of local, state, federal, and international law enforcement bodies as they strive to maintain peace and security in the 21st century."

In other words, preparing NOW for criminal and terrorist threats that are just beginning to crystallize out of today's saturated demographic, cultural, and technological environments.

There are articles on:

Preparing for the Challenges Ahead: Practical Applications of Futures Research.
The Future of Public/Private Partnerships.
The possible future use of "Augmented Reality" technologies to assist police in things like on-site forensic analysis and identification, capturing fugitives, managing traffic, real-time language translation, and WMD detection.
The use of simulation technology to teach officers how to make good decisions in dangerous or crisis situations before they get hit with the real thing.

Some of the articles are conceptual; some are practical -- all are frank in assessing the demands and difficulties of re-tooling law enforcement departments and budgets and mindsets to embrace new ways of thinking and doing.

As for the "Futures Working Group" itself, it's an interesting partnership of international educators, researchers, security and technology experts, law enforcement officials, and other professionals -- all seriously dedicated to thinking through how best to protect our future communities. Learn more about it, its members, its research program and future studies on the Futures Working Group website.

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