Officers Remember Suspects
Before many police departments send units out to patrol, they hold a shift briefing to discuss events, notifications, investigations, crime trends, etc. During these briefings, often times officers will hear the same names come up, as some criminals are habitual offenders or are frequently suspected in criminal activity. Typically, certain officers are more likely to deal with a specific habitual offender than others, usually because the offender lives in those officer’s patrol zones. I think it would be a neat feature if you could program officers to gain, we’ll call it “suspect experience,” for lack of a better term, each time they deal with a specific suspect. This would simulate a real officer’s ability to learn about this suspect, to understand how they behave, to anticipate how they will react, and establish a rapport, thus increasing that particular officer’s chance of achieving a peaceful resolution with that suspect, as well as increasing the odds that the suspect will comply or even offer assistance to that officer. For instance, Officer A has had 5 interactions with Suspect A. Officer B has had 0 interactions. If Officer B is dispatched to Suspect A’s home, Suspect A will be non-compliant or combative. However, Officer A is called to assist, and when Officer A arrives, that Officer can use his/her experience with Suspect A to de-escalate and gain compliance.
Another feature to tie in to the above mentioned, is for Officers to automatically offer to respond to/assist with calls tied to addresses or suspects they have high “suspect experience” with. It could appear as a radio prompt with the Officer requesting to respond due to “familiarity with involved parties,” or something along those lines.
I forgot to mention that the opposite could also exist, in that a suspect can remember which officers they have interacted with, and, depending on if they had a positive or negative interaction, it could influence their decisions.
Very good idea!