Police departments in the United States and Canada see it as central to their role that they respond to calls for help as quickly as possible. This ability to react fast has been greatly improved with the aid of technology. The telephone and police radio, already long in use, assist greatly in the reduction of police response time. In more recent times there has been the introduction of the ‘911’ emergency system, which allows the public easier and faster contact with police, and the use of computer systems, which assist police in planning patrols and assigning emergency requests to the police officers nearest to the scene of the emergency.