Fighting crime in the computer age

Technology is changing at a dizzying pace, and law enforcement officers are having trouble keeping up. ew smartphones are being released constantly. Tablets like the iPad are replacing laptop computers. Almost everybody - including those who break the law - have access to a cellphone.

"We tend to play catch-up a lot of times because technology is changing so rapidly," said Jason Lee, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Wyoming.

This new way of committing crime can pose a problem for law enforcement officers, who have to be knowledgeable about every new device. According to a 2011 report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center, that year marked the third in a row that it received more than 300,000 complaints. The center received 314,246 complaints, an increase of 3.4 percent from 2010.

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