Economics 204 has made apparent the importance of networks as a crucial component of the world. Whether its in the development of the internet and how its original structure amongst a few universities has developed to bring information to billions of people across the world, or the basic networks people develop amongst themselves which facilitates making friends and the employment process, the establishment of networks seems obvious and necessary for optimizing the functioning of the social, technological, and natural worlds. The article, “National Dragnet is a Click Away,” by Robert O’Harrow and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post discusses the development of a new network in the law enforcement field that will have the ability to unify and analyze vast amounts of police information.

This article provides the perfect example of the formation of new networks in real time. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the importance of having easily attainable and sharable information is vital for any hope of uncovering terror plots and fighting crime. Despite the popular belief that our current police system is equipped with a giant database that holds every detail about every criminal ever identified, this is merely a glamorized illusion produced by movies and television.  But perhaps with the technology available today this fantasy could become a reality. The new criminal data network systems being developed hope to make such information easily accessible and distributable. One such system called Coplink is making headway, “With Coplink, police investigators can pinpoint suspects by searching on scraps of information such as nicknames, height, weight, color of hair and the placement of a tattoo. They can find hidden relationships among suspects and instantly map links among people, places and events. Searches that might have taken weeks or months — or which might not have been attempted, because of the amount of paper and analysis involved — are now done in seconds.”

However, the establishment of networks such as Coplink has not been an easy feat. Other such systems have failed due to being under funded and poorly run. This brought to my attention the often-overlooked effort that is required to establish a strong well flowing network. Amongst friends, two friends and an enemy are fine, but two enemies and a friend produces latent stress. On a much larger scale it becomes apparent that many people must be equally committed, everyone including those contributing information to a skilled staff focused on working out any tension or glitches in the system, must contribute for the network to work. Hopefully, if these components are maintained, there is a bright and effective future in sight, which involves an efficiently fluid network that resembles the crime solving systems of those seen on television.

Link to source:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503656.html?nav=rss_print/asection