-
The New Orleans Police Department installs an electronic data processing machine, possibly the first department in the country to do so. The machine is not a computer, but a vacuum-tube operated calculator with a punch-card sorter and collator. It summarizes arrests and warrants.
-
A former marine invents the side-handle baton, a baton with a handle attached at a 90-degree angle near the gripping end. Its versatility and effectiveness eventually make the side-handle baton standard issue in many U.S. police agencies.
-
The National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, a message-switching facility linking all state police computers except Hawaii, comes into being.
-
AT&T announces it will establish a special number -- 911 -- for emergency calls to the police, fire and other emergency services. Within several years, 911 systems are in widespread use in large urban areas.
-
Rockwell International installs the first fingerprint reader at the FBI. In 1979, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police implements the first actual automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS).
-
Police departments begin implementing "enhanced" 911, which allows dispatchers to see on their computer screens the addresses and telephone numbers from which 911 emergency calls originated.
-
Departments in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere increasingly use sophisticated computer programs to map and analyze crime patterns.
-
The FBI started using DNA
-
As of 2008, there were 1,100 forensic science labs in 89 countries, as noted at Forensic.santoshraut.com. New developments continue to be made in the many forensic labs around the world.
