Law enforcement officers' acceptance of advanced e-government technology: A survey study of COPLINK Mobile

Timely information access and knowledge support is critical for law enforcement, because officers require convenient and timely access to accurate data, relevant information, and integrated knowledge in their crime investigation and fighting activities. As an integrated system that provides such support, COPLINK can improve collaboration within and across agency boundaries. This study examines field officers' acceptance and actual use of COPLINK Mobile, a critical technology that offers COPLINK core query functionalities through a lightweight, handheld device or mobile applications running on a small bandwidth. We propose and empirically test a factor model explaining the focal technology acceptance with survey data collected from 40 field officers. The data support our model and most of the hypotheses, which can reasonably explain an officer's acceptance and actual use of COPLINK Mobile. Among the determinants investigated, perceived usefulness has the greatest impact and depends on both efficiency gain and social influence. Our findings have important implications for both research and practice.