To properly asses the effect of ICT on an individual it is necessary to use an example. Recently during one of our lessons Paul Stevens, a police officer working as a Crime intervention officer for schools, met with us to explain how he uses ICT and the effect it has on him. I will be using his experiences within this project to illustrate the effect of ICT on his working life.
Mr Stevens viewed his mobile phone as probably the most useful technology that he owned. His ability to contact colleagues and to get information from other departments was vital. It can be clearly seen that the use of a mobile in Mr Stevens work is of great benefit to him and does indeed make his life easier and more efficient. However there are downsides particularly as already mentioned in the Health areas but also noise pollution to other people that are near him when he uses his mobile phone.
Mr Stevens also has a police radio which he uses during his office hours. This is usually for reporting crime and asking for assistance. There is not only a benefit to him in the use of this technology, but also to the General public, who gains a significant service from Mr Stevens.
He also uses a laptop to record notes on suspects which he later downloads to the police’s main systems. He is allowed to use the internet on this laptop but only for work related items. His access to data and information by the use of this technology has been very greatly enhanced, so much so that I am sure that he now wonders what happened before this information was available.
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) has enabled Mr Stevens to work much more efficiently. With Global Positioning satellites the police are now able to track stolen cars and also the availability and location of their own vehicle. This has meant to him that if he is in trouble he can rely on a much faster response time. This is mainly because the nearest car to him can be despatched very rapidly.
CCTV has a very large impact upon his work in that now he does not have to rely on members of the public to report disturbances or the report crime. He can now view the problems as they occur and respond accordingly. However the downside to this is the loss of privacy to the individual. On average it is estimated that every person in the UK is recorded for 15minutes each year on a CCTV system. The benefit of this to the police is obvious; the invasion of privacy to the individual is not so obvious.
The same can be said for Speed cameras. Again these are of great benefit to the Police in the execution of their duty, but in many peoples eyes are a further invasion of privacy. The benefit of this technology to Mr Stevens is that the police are able to reduce road speeds and therefore fatalities without having to deploy large numbers of policeman on the streets.
Conclusion
The example of Mr Stevens greatly shows us that, dependence on ICT and particularly on the internet means that we need greater awareness of our neighbours than ever before. Because of this dependence, we need to be clear about the implications for others of our action or inaction. This is most easily illustrated in the area of security:
- Virus protection - it is well known that many viruses, if they infect your computer, then starts mailing themselves to everybody you know and, in many cases, a great many people you don't. Installing and maintaining virus protection is not just about protecting you.
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Fire walling - similarly, a computer that can easily be 'cracked' can easily be penetrated and used for activities like 'distributed denial of service attacks" - roughly speaking, your computer can be programmed to participate in attacks on other people's servers, without your even knowing it is taking place
Overall Mr Stevens has access to or directly uses a large amount of Information Technology and communications devices. All of these devices are there to make him more efficient and make his job more effective. However as I have pointed out there are impacts to other people on the use of this technology. Indeed Mr Stevens himself is impacted by other people’s use of technology. If other people are not as socially aware as he is they can quite easily corrupt his systems and render his job useless. Do all in all ICT impact is immense but can also be a double edged sword in that it has benefits and problems.
