1. Asheleyn Richwine
Mrs. Burgess
Tech Systems
1 December 2015
Technology in My Future
Many people don't realize it, but the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department relies very
heavily on the use of technology to run smoothly. Without technology, much of the officers time
would be spent logging information. Jailers would often spend large amounts of time logging
information about inmates. To learn more about technology in my future, I interviewed Pulaski
County Sheriff Jeffery Richwine.
Officers spend much time on patrol in their vehicles. On the outside, the blue and red
lights are now all LED. On the inside, officers use radios to communicate to dispatchers in the
jail and with other officers on duty. All radios are now Internet based. All officers have
computers to log information. All officers are also equipped with radar guns which are used to
determine how fast a vehicle is traveling. All patrol vehicles have a GPS tracker.
A jailer sits in the pod all day, every day. The jailer has a row of computers linked to
cameras that oversee the jail and the courts. The jailer can also open doors and talk to people
in the hallways! Jailers also have radios to communicate with each other and can talk to the
inmates in the cells. They can also fog the windows on the female inmates area with the push of
a button. All inmates wear a barcoded bracelet. Whenever they receive food or medicine, are
weighed, or transported their bracelet is scanned to keep track of every single thing that is done
with them. When they make calls, voice recognition on the phones records who is making the
call.
Technology is used throughout the administrative side of the jail. The Sheriff has an app
called iDMSS. This app allows him to access any camera in the jail or the courts right on his cell
phone. This is helpful because if he is away from the office he can still check up on all of the
employees at the jail. On the computer, he has access to GPS mapping. He can see where all

2. the officers vehicles are currently, and where they have been. He can even see where they
were years ago! Computers are also used daily for everything from emails, to checking a sex
offender's information, to keeping track of deputies.
A hot topic in law enforcement today is whether or not body cameras should be worn by
officers. Sheriff Richwine likes the idea, stating that they take away all questions and almost
always prove the officer right. The only thing he doesn’t like about body cameras is that the
videos they take are public, meaning anyone could have them if they wanted, with the only
exception being cases still under investigation and cases involving juveniles.
With all deputies wearing body cameras for every shift, it’s not hard to imagine how
much storage that would take up. The cameras in use in Pulaski County are always on and
recording video, but the video doesn’t save until an officer pushes a button. The camera then
goes back and retrieves the previous thirty seconds of video and saves it. The officer then
downloads the video to a server while doing his report.
Pulaski County doesn’t only have human officers, it is home to a canine officer, too!
There are a lot of special features to the car he rides in to keep him safe. There is a heat sensor
in the back of the car where he rides. If it gets too hot, the lights and sirens go off and the
windows roll down! His handler, Travis Clark, has a button on his vest that he can push to
release Gil if he needs him.
Every police officer uses a computer on a daily basis. They have to fill out something
called a call screen, which has the information about who called in to 911, who was dispatched
to the call, what the call was for, and what the officers did at the call. Officers can use their
computer to clock in and out. They can also use their radio or a fingerprint scanner at the jail to
clock in and out!
There are always things that can be improved on. In the coming years, there will most
likely be huge advancements in the technology that is available to everyone involved in the
criminal justice field. One thing Sheriff Richwine would like to see become available for officers

3. is something that allows the officer to talk and it would be able to fill in his reports and all his call
screens. That would save a ton of time for the officers so that they could do less typing and
more patrolling.
After my interview with the Sheriff, I decided that this is definitely the career field for me!
I am very excited to see what new advancements come to assist officers to make their jobs
safer and easier. It was awesome to learn about all the technology officers use, so that when it
is my turn I won't be clueless!