| Summary: | In an effort to reduce the workload of police officers participating in problem-solving and community-oriented activities, the San Francisco Police Department applied for and was awarded a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Making Officer Redeployment Effective (MORE) grant in 1995 to integrate Mobile Computing Terminals (MCTs), or laptop computers, into its daily operations. The National Institute of Justice funded an evaluation of this COPS MORE initiative. The evaluation examined the efficacy of a technological intervention to improve operational efficiency, service quality, and the corresponding changes in officers' attitudes and behaviors associated with integrating the use of MCTs for computerized incident reporting into the work process. The two systematic methods of data collection used for this research project were pencil-and-paper surveys of officers' attitudes toward computers and community policing and direct observation of the behavior of officers on patrol, including measurements of time to complete reports and time engaged in police activities.
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