Edward C. Ratledge - Böcker

As the complexities and problems that plague law enforcement agencies continue to proliferate, the need to utilize every available tool has led to the application of expert systems to law enforcement activities. This first book to explore this application is both practical and conceptually clear as it explains the potential utility of expert systems and their impact on operations and management. Such systems can support command and control through computer-aided dispatching, assist in the solution of high volume crimes such as residential burglaries, aid in the design of programs for the apprehension and prosecution of career criminals and repeat offenders, upgrade personnel through enhanced training programs, and provide an improved method for the delivery of technical assistance and training services. Until now, literature to assist organizations that could benefit from this technology has been scarce. Ratledge and Jacoby have geared their discussions to a wide audience which includes both practitioners and the academic community. This handbook offers clear, systematic explanations of the applications of expert systems in the world of law enforcement. It discusses the impact of these systems on traditional ways of policing and crime solving, and details a set of practical guidelines for jurisdictions considering the use of expert systems. The text is designed to present information in an order that progresses from general to technical aspects of the subject.The first two chapters provide an overview of expert systems as they apply to different law enforcement areas and discuss the policy issues they create. The next section describes practical applications of expert systems in computer-aided dispatching, crime solving, and training. Chapter 4 explains the basic steps in building expert systems, its terminology, and general characteristics. Chapter 5 offers an introduction to artificial intelligence and its uses in problem solving and expert systems. Written with the expert systems designer or data processing manager in mind, Chapter 6 reviews the problems encountered in linking inferencing to data processing and the efficiencies and technical requirements of the system. In Chapter 7, a case study of the Baltimore County Police Department's expert system for residential burglaries is presented and the steps taken in the development of that system are described. Included in the valuable appendices are a list of vendors, two bibliographies including an annotated one relating to current policing issues and one dealing with technical publications, and a glossary. This timely handbook will enable practitioners in criminal justice to make informed decisions regarding the implementation of expert systems. It also provides up-to-the-minute information for computer system consultants and academicians and students in computer science and criminal justice administration.

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of both the historical and the contemporary dimensions of the politics and government of the "First State." Once a sparsely populated, agrarian, and relatively insignificant polity, Delaware has become a densely and diversely populated financial and legal center often called the "corporation capital of the world." Delaware's prime location has been central to its development and transition from a goods-producing economy to a fast-growing, service-based economy. Despite its diminutive size, Delaware is, in many ways, the nation's preferred corporate home. William W. Boyer and Edward C. Ratledge provide an overview of Delaware's history, structure, and present politics and explain why one of the smallest states in the country is also one of the most powerful. Delaware continually promotes pro-business legislation, business and public objectives are entwined, and privatization is a dominant theme in public affairs. The state has an individualistic political order in which public participation is indirect and citizen activism is limited.

In this book, readers will take a fascinating journey with local prosecutors as they seek to obtain reasonable and appropriate case dispositions while preventing abuse and misuse of the law and protecting the civil rights of their jurisdictions.Prosecutors have a powerful and generally little-understood role in the criminal justice system. Their important powers include accepting or rejecting cases, making decisions about dismissing charges, or moving cases to disposition and recommending a sentence—all of which can critically affect not only individuals but society through their ability to shape our criminal justice system. The Power of the Prosecutor: Gatekeepers of the Criminal Justice System explores the real-world actions and outcomes of local prosecutors through five well-known cases, documenting the variety of pressures prosecutors face both within and outside their offices as they attempt to make the best decisions about crimes and defendants. Written by individuals who have actively engaged prosecutors in practically every U.S. state over 30 years' time, the book examines actual case profiles that enable readers to witness how prosecutors reach their behind-the-scenes decisions and grasp how the criminal justice system operates. The authors explain the variations in prosecution, including the effects of policies and priorities, action choices available, and the types of both internal and external relationships with other participants in the system: the police, the courts, the defense counsel, and the community they represent. Readers will come away with in-depth knowledge and understanding of the complexities and pressures faced by prosecutors in upholding justice under a wide variety of conditions.

This book identifies ten pivotal policies in Delaware that still impact public life in this small state. Much that has happened since the mid-twentieth century in Delaware public policy evolved from particular events. These events consisted of court decisions, laws passed, or incidents that happened to particular persons. They prompted public policies, the effects of which were not clearly understood, that were often counter to what was anticipated, had undesirable side effects, or were inadequate to deal with the problems encountered. This chronicle begins in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court confronted racially segregated Delaware with the necessity to desegregate its public schools " with all deliberate speed." Chapter 2 evolves from 1964, when the Supreme Court ordained—by virtue of its "one-person-one-vote" decision—that states end over-representation of rural voters in their state legislatures. Chapter 3 turns to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King followed by the Delaware National Guards occupation of Wilmington for over nine months. Chapter 4 focuses on the 1970 establishment of the cabinet system in Delaware's state government. Chapter 5 concentrates on the 1971 enactment to protect Delaware's coastal zone, and its aftermath. Chapter 6 records 1977 as a turning point for Delaware's response to increasing crime by option for increasing punishment in place of rehabilitating prisoners. Chapter 7 highlights how the General Assembly's over-ride of the 1978 budget evoked consensus and bipartisan politics . Chapter 8 focuses on the newly ensconced pro-business climate, illustrated in 1951 by the Financial Center Development Act that deregulated credit card banking. Chapter 9 tells that story of how Delaware sought to confront its high cancer rate, beginning with the 1990 report of the Governor's advisory council. Chapter 10 concentrates on Delaware's troubled efforts to develop energy policies, beginning with the 1999 legislation deregulating electric power.The book's Afterword broadly assesses how these major policy developments have effected systemic institutional change in how Delaware is governed.