Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Introduction

Traditional policing
Amounts to throwing money at the crime problem
Is unimaginative

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Crime Control in America: What Works?

CHAPTER

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Traditional Policing

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Introduction

Traditional policing strategies include:
Hiring cops
Freeing up resources
Random, preventive patrol
Rapid response
Residency requirements
College degrees for cops

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

The Theory of Traditional Policing

Traditional policing prizes deterrence theory
Who cares?
Some people cannot necessarily be deterred from committing crime

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Does Hiring More Cops Reduce Crime?

Common sense tells us that hiring more cops will reduce crime
The problem?
The police presence is spread thin
Apprehension of additional criminals may actually give the impression that crime is on the rise!

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Reasons Why Hiring More Cops May Not Reduce Crime

There are several reasons why hiring more cops may not reduce crime
Police officers can't work around the clock
Some cities have fewer police per citizen than others but less crime
Police are not necessarily capable of deterring certain types of crime (e.g., crimes committed behind closed doors and out of view)

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Lessons From Kansas City

The famous Kansas City experiment divided the city into:
Proactive beats (with a stepped-up police presence)
Reactive beats (police only responded to calls for service)
Control beats (business as usual)

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Lessons From Kansas City

Findings
No significant reductions in proactive beat
People didn't even notice!

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

The Post-Kansas City Intellectual Debate

The Kansas City experiment prompted many researchers to explore the relationship between police levels and crime
The findings
??????

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

The Violent Crime Control Act of 1994

$ Billions to local law enforcement
"COPS Office" created
100,000 new cops
Has the Act made a difference?
One recent study concludes it has
Authors claimed that increases in hiring reduce violent and property crimes

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

What Happens When the Police go on Strike?

Findings?
Increase in crime during Helsinki, Finland police strike
Increase in crime during Montreal police strike
Both studies dealt with strikes far in the past
Today police are often prohibited by law from striking

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

What Happens When the Police go on Strike?

Who cares?
The police strike-crime relationship offers evidence that additional hiring won't be counterproductive and that police are essential

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

A Very Thin Blue Line: Is There Really a Police Presence?

When factoring in shifts, vacation, sick leave, and the like, the size of the typical police force is reduced substantially
How many of the officers are driving around, engaged in routine preventive patrol at any given time?

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

A Very Thin Blue Line: Is There Really a Police Presence?

It is actually a miracle that police presence (however minute) can affect crime throughout the United States.

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

What Are They Doing on the Job?

Police efforts need to be directed to specific problems
Some research suggests that hiring more police, even with virtually no attention to what they are doing, can reduce crime.

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

What Are They Doing on the Job?

COP grants were funded to increase the amount of community policing throughout the United States, but it is not clear to this day how many of the funded agencies actually engage in COP activities.

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Does it Work?

Hiring more cops is not counterproductive
Recent studies show more cops = less crime
Police strike literature tells us the police perform a valuable function
We cannot conclude with 100% certainty that hiring more cops reduces crime, but it certainly helps

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Freeing Up Resources

If hiring is not possible, then "cutting the fat" and freeing up police resources may help

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Freeing Up Resources

Methods of freeing up resources include:
Eliminating two officer patrols and replacing them with one officer patrols
Implementing 311 systems
Carefully examining (and possibly changing) what officers do while on the clock

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

One Versus Two Officer Patrols

Studies on one versus two officer patrols have concluded that
Patrol staffing mode has almost no effect on police effectiveness
Single-officer staffing increases visibility, but has almost no effect on crime

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

One Versus Two Officer Patrols

Studies on one versus two officer patrols have concluded that
Two officer patrols are (big surprise) twice as costly as one officer patrols
Patrol activity levels are comparable between both staffing methods

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

311

311 alternative to 911
Frees up time
Does 311 work?
There's almost no research available on 311

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

311

Does 311 work?
Available research shows
311 may reduce overall calls to 911
311 does not reduce officer response time
311 does not free up uncommitted blocks of time

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Patrol Downtime Studies

Some studies show that as much as 60 percent of police officers' time on duty is uncommitted
Can their routine duties be altered?

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Does it Work?

The evidence in favor of one versus two officer patrols, 311, and reducing patrol downtime is not encouraging

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

The Problem with Being Reactive and Random

Reactive policing is not very effective
How do we know?
Comparisons of crime rates and arrest rate
Not much of a link between crime rate and arrest rate
Targeted arrests (e.g., domestic violence)

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Domestic Violence Arrests

Two strains of research
Effect of anti-domestic violence laws on domestic violence
Mandatory arrest for domestic violence
Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment (1984)
Arrest, separation, and counseling
Supported arrest
Much conflicting evidence since then

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Rapid Response

Many people feel that getting cops to the scene of a crime faster will reduce crime
What does the research show?
No clear relationship between response time and probability of arrest
Few crimes are "hot"

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Random Patrol

Can police officers deter crime by randomly driving around?
Probably not
Why?
Kansas City Experiment

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Does it Work?

Reactive and random policing is not effective

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Detective Work and Crime

Patrol is arguably the most significant priority to most American police agencies.
Investigations would fall in 2nd place
Approximately 60 percent of police personnel are assigned to patrol, and 15 percent are assigned to investigations

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Private Policing

Private police outnumber public police 3 to 1
Store detectives
Security guards
Why private police?
Privatization
Mass private property
Public police ineffective

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Does it Work?

Despite all the attention to private policing, it remains to be seen whether it is any more or less effective than public policing.
In all likelihood, it may fall victim to the same fate as traditional policing in general.

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Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

Does it Work?

This is especially true if private policing is used to engage in traditional functions such as random patrol and rapid response.

Crime Control in America: What Works?, 3e John L. Worrall

College Degrees for Cops

Advantages
Broader base for decision-making
Arguments against
Restricted applicant pool
Education does not improve crime fighting abilities
What does the research show?
Don't know if crime is affected
May affect decisions to use force