Literature Review
Foot patrolling is seen as a commonly used policing method on the street of cities. However, the effectiveness of this method has been very controversial to both policy makers and researchers. Cowell and Kringen note two rationales for the use of foot patrols: to deter potential offenders and to produce positive relationships between the public and police officers, especially if previously strained. If foot patrols were successful at deterring crime, then crime would decrease in the areas where this method was used. However, research has failed to find consistent significant results. Some research indicates a small drop in crime rates, while others find no significant change. There are also mixed evidence supporting the notion
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This is when an individual officer is given a specific community or area (beat) to police. Thus, the officer takes responsibility for that area and is responsible for communicating with the community and proactively responding to community problems. This model emphasizes the community’s role in determining what is a problem, claiming that a problem cannot be identified without the community’s help. Previous studies have determined a decrease in reported crime where beat policing was used. Interestingly, these studies also found that people living within the communities that this type of policing was used considered their community to be more problematic than others (Mazerolle, Adams, Budz, Cockerill & Vance, 2003, p.1-83). This research provides some evidence that foot patrolling is effective yet, simultaneously, provides evidence that disproves the notion that foot patrolling decreases the fear of crime in a …show more content…
She first defined foot patrolling as a “policing tactic or technique that involves movement around an area for the purpose of observation, inspection, or security” (2006, p.11). Despite the simplicity of the term or practice, officers vary in significant ways when patrolling. Thus, Wakefield stresses the importance of selecting the “right” officer for the job. This officer must have received the proper training. This may include training with communicating with the public, problem-solving, adaptability, etc. In addition, the specific role of patrolling needs to be clearly defined so that structure is provided for the officers yet they are also free to assess and adapt to the community’s specific needs (2006,
Because of budget constraints, the study only used one beat to collect data on the effects of increasing police patrol. Even though money was an issue, the experiment could have yielded better data by repeating the experiment multiple times to see if the data they collected would be reliable. The experiment also took place during the winter. The report of the study even noted that there was some evidence that crime activity levels declined, just as street activity does, because of colder weather. Although the design of the study contained weaknesses, some of the methods used by the researchers worked well for this type of study. One of the strengths of this experiment was the different methods used to acquire illegal guns in the beat. By using a variation of ways to seize illegal weapons in the “hot spot,” it allowed officers to increase their chances of finding more illegal guns. Using different methods of search also could have led to greater number of potential offenders to know that officers were looking for illegal weapons and refrained from offending. Another strength of the study includes the relatively inexpensive method to try to answer their hypothesis. Increasing police patrol is one of the more inexpensive methods and it did manage to decrease the number of gun crimes and homicide in the
According to Kelling, Pate, Dieckman, & Brown (1974), patrol is the “backbone” of police work. This belief is based around the premise that the mere presence of police officers on patrol prohibits criminal activity. Despite increasing budgets and the availability of more officers on the streets, crime rates still rose with the expanding metropolitan populations (Kelling et al., 1974). A one year experiment to determine the effectiveness of routine preventive patrol would be conducted, beginning on the first day of October 1972, and ending on the last day of September 1973.
When political anarchy, social injustices, and crime end up leading to civil depravities that go against the foundation of democracy, society depends on the police to come in and keep the peace, while attempting to restore the order. These officers are asked to pursue criminals in vehicles, and on foot, repeatedly expose themselves to the dangers of the crimes, and remain calm while being under pressure at all moments on the job, and even off duty. Being an officer of the law takes a special person
The results of the study data found that the strategy of hot spot identification and targeting caused a lasting reduction of crime and disorder behaviors within the target areas. Vehicle patrols within the target areas were found to cause a residual deterrent effect but research data showed that the duration at which officers need to stay within the hot spot area in order to have a greater residual effect is approximately 10 minutes. Further, the optimal time frame for officers to stay within the target area is 10 to 14 minutes. Continued officer presence within the hot spot area after 14 minutes has a diminished effect (Koper, 1995). In addition, the strategy of intensified patrols was found to reduce total police calls for service within
Along with gaining the support of law enforcement officers in the community policing effort, members of the community must also take a stake and become an integral part of the movement. A study noted by Lord, Kuhns and Friday (2009), researchers found that more than 45 million people over the age of 15 encountered the police in some fashion. Of those encounters, one quarter involved members making first contact with police officers. Unfortunately, citizen encounters with law enforcement with negative connotations were more influential to decrease satisfaction with the police than were positive encounters to increase satisfaction (Lord, Kuhns, & Friday, 2009).
Kerley K. and Benson M. (2000). Does Community- Oriented Policing Help Build Stronger Communities? Police Quarterly: 3 (1)
Community oriented policing has been around for over 30 years, and promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes, and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem solving tactics. The way community policing works is it requires the police and citizens to work together to increase safety for the public. Each community policing program is different depending on the needs of the community. There have been five consistent key elements of an effective community oriented policing program: Adopting community service as the overarching philosophy of the organization, making an institutional commitment to community policing that is internalized throughout the command structure, emphasizing geographically decentralized models of policing that stress services tailored to the needs of individual communities rather than a one-size-fits-all approach for the entire jurisdiction, empowering citizens to act in partnership with the police on issues of crime and more broadly defined social problems, for example, quality-of-life issues, and using problem-oriented or problem-solving approaches involving police personnel working with community members. Community oriented policing has improved the public’s perception of the police in a huge way. Community policing builds more relationships with the
Crime Analysis has many benefits to the community. Community engagement, targeted initiatives, strategic use of resources, and data-driven decision-making contribute to decreasing crime. Crime prevention and community satisfaction with police services, while linked to the number of officers on the streets, does not depend entirely on the visibility of patrol officers. Community engagement, targeted initiatives, strategic use of resources, and data-driven decision-making contribute to decreasing crime. So in closing I believe that departments that take the positive elements of foot patrols and combine their efforts with crime analysis that focuses on the time, location, and type of crime, may use the findings to develop strategies to decrease crime and enhance the quality of life in their communities.
Community based policing can best be defined as, 'a collaborative effort between the police and the community that identifies problems of crime and disorder and involves all elements of the community in the search for solutions to these problems' (Sykes). Community based policing is the idea that the role of the police is not that of catching 'bad guys,' but more that of serving the public. In order for community based policing to have an effect, the presence of crime isn?t needed, in fact it?s often more effective without the involvement of crime, ?Modern police departments are frequently called upon to help citizens resolve a vast array of personal problems--many of which involve no law-breaking activity? (Schmalleger). The role of the police officer in community based policing, is to have an active part in the community. This can be something as simple as stopping in at a school just to talk to the kids, or...
From this Community Police Consortium, the BJA put together a report titled Understanding Community Policing, A Framework for Action, which focused on developing a conceptual framework for community policing and assisting agencies in implementing community policing. The basis for this consortium was much more direct than the previous efforts set forth by Presidential Commissions during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and led to what became known as the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS, Title 1 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994). The core components outlined in the BJA report listed the two complementary core components to community policing: community partnership and problem solving. The report further stated that effective community policing depends on positive contact between patrol officers and community members, establishing and maintaining mutual trust as the primary goal of a community partnership, and police and community must join together to encourage and preserve peace and prosperity. While these are just a few of the recommendations listed in the report, there were many more that set forth the framework for community policing, but these were the core components.
Community policing allows officers to be actively involved on the streets alongside the community. Their focus is not only to solve crimes but to interact with the people in their neighborhood, establish a rapport with them. This initiative has gained popularity within recent years as the police and leaders of the community pursue more significant ways to promote public safety and to enrich the quality of life of their community members. The police and the citizens often come in contact with each other for a multitude of reasons other than criminal purposes. Police officers often engage in community service by providing an abundance of information for those in need, and they offer educational services at schools and outreach
The key characteristics of community policing are as follows: Police officers are usually called upon to be particularly thoughtful, creative problem solvers. They are asked to listen to the concerns of community members, to logically reason out the roots of problems, to identify and research potential answers, to implement solutions, and to assess results. Police officers work in partnership with concerned citizens. The second characteristic is that police officers are visible and accessible component of the community and work with youths and other community members top address delinquency problems. On the third characteristic, police officers patrol a limited number of jurisdictions on foot. The so-called foot patrol officers are believed to be more approachable and offer a comforting presence to citizens. The fourth and last characteristic that will be mentioned on this paper is that the community policing have decentralized operations, which allows officers to develop greater familiarity with the needs of various constituencies in the community and to adapt procedures to accommodate those needs.
Based on its analysis of a carefully controlled experiment carried out chiefly in Newark, the foundation concluded, to the surprise of hardly anyone, that foot-patrol had not reduced crime rates (Koper, 1995). However, residents of the neighborhoods where foot-patrols had been conducted seemed to feel more secure than persons in other areas that were not receiving foot-patrols. These same citizens tended to believe that crime had been reduced, and appeared to engage in fewer processes take to protect themselves from crime and acts of disorder, such staying at home with the doors locked and not taking walks in the evening (Kelling & Wilson, The Atlantic, 1982). More importantly, citizens in the foot-patrol areas had a significantly more favorable opinion of the police than did those living elsewhere, where the foot-patrol experiment was not conducted. This study also revealed that the officers that had been assigned walking beats exhibited higher morale, greater job satisfaction, and a more favorable attitude toward citizens in their neighborhoods than did officers assigned to patrol cars only (Bain,
Community policing is a law enforcement strategy that encourages interactive partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the people they serve (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.") These partnerships help communities find solutions to problems with collaborative problem solving and improved public trust. Through this model, the public plays a role in prioritizing public safety problems (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.")
Sherman, L., & Weisburd, D. (1995) General deterrent effects of police patrol in crime “Hot