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4.3: Police Methods

Criminal Justice | Section 4.3: Police Methods

Section 4.3: Police Methods For most of its history in America, the work of the patrol o�cer and the

investigator constituted the vast majority of police work. Uniformed o�cers

patrolled the streets of America’s cities, serving as a highly visible deterrent to

crime and attempting to catch criminals in the act. If patrol failed, the

investigator’s job was to follow up, solving crimes by questioning victims,

witnesses, and suspects. Only since the 1960s has empirical research highlighted

the limits of both preventive patrol and criminal investigations in dealing with

America’s crime problem. It was not until the early 1990s that this research

spawned a new wave of police reform aimed at proactive policing strategies. These

proactive strategies meant that police e�orts would shift (at least to some degree)

from responding to calls for service to initiating action.

Patrol

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Patrol is often called the “backbone” of the police department, and for good reason.

Patrol consumes most of the average police department’s resources. The basic

philosophy and strategy of preventive patrol has not changed from Peel’s time: the

patrol o�cer makes circuits through a speci�ed area, often called a beat. During

Peel’s time, most patrols were done on foot, with the occasional horse patrol.

Technology ushered in the automobile, and modern police forces take full

advantage of the bene�ts o�ered by cars. The most important of these advantages

is the area that a single o�cer can cover. Automobile patrol o�cers can cover much

wider beat areas than o�cers on foot. The bottom line is that because an o�cer in a

car can cover a much wider geographic area, departments need fewer o�cers. This

translates into huge savings. Automobile patrol is much cheaper than foot patrol.

The e�ectiveness of patrol operations within a department is usually judged by

three major functions. These include answering calls for service, deterring crime by

a highly visible police presence, and investigating suspicious circumstances. Of

these three major functions of patrol, crime deterrence is the most controversial.

The historical assumption, stemming from Peel’s day, was that a highly visible

o�cer patrolling a beat would serve as a deterrent to would-be criminals. Research

evidence since the 1970s has supported the idea that random preventive patrol has

very little if any impact on crime.

T H E K A N S A S C I T Y P R E V E N T I V E P A T R O L E X P E R I M E N T

In the 1970s, criminal justice researchers began to question the underlying

assumption of preventive patrol. They designed an experiment to �nd out of

preventive patrol reduced crime and made citizens feel safe from crime. They also

wondered about patrol strength. In other words, did the number of o�cers on

patrol in a given area have an impact on both actual crime and citizens’ perceptions

of crime?

The researchers’ experiment was conducted in conjunction with the Kansas City,

Missouri police department. The department divided the city’s 15 beat areas into 3

groups. As with any good experiment, the experimenters needed a control group. To

serve this purpose, one cluster of 5 beats made no changes in the number of patrol

o�cers working in the area. In a second area, the police withdrew all preventive

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patrol and served a completely reactive role. They entered this “reactive” area only

when calls for service were received. In the third area, they raised preventive patrol

to four times the normal level. If the conventional wisdom about the e�ectiveness

of preventive patrol held true, then the experimenters should observe a higher

crime rate in the reactive area, no change in the crime rate in the control area, and a

drop in the intensi�ed patrol area.

What the researchers found staggered the world of policing: There was almost no

di�erence in actual crime or citizens’ fear of crime. Citizen’s opinions about how

good a job the police were doing did not change. It seemed that law-abiding citizens

and criminals alike simply did not notice the changes. As one would expect, this

caused a �urry of opinions to come out regarding the interpretation of these

�ndings. Some argued that the �ndings must be wrong, and that preventive patrol

was and always had been a good thing. Others argued that patrol was just a bad idea

and that the police should focus on di�erent things. Many stood the middle ground,

focusing on making patrol more e�ective by changing the way it was done. One of

the few things that almost all commentators agreed on was that just pouring more

o�cers out on the street would have little impact on crime. What was needed was a

fundamental change.

The Proactive Paradigm Shift

While the research evidence seems to indicate that the mere presence of uniformed

o�cers in an area does little to deter crime, the same cannot be said of more

aggressive patrol strategies. Proactive patrol operations shift from random to

targeted. Speci�c types of o�enders, speci�c places, and speci�c types of victims

can be considered. Myriad tactics fall under this general philosophy. Undercover

operations, the use of informants, using decoys, saturating problem areas, and

frequent patrols of “hot spots” are just a few examples.

An important argument in how to better utilize patrol is that random patrols do not

work well because crime is not a random phenomenon. While it may seem fair,

giving every neighborhood in a city an equal amount of police time and resources is

horribly ine�cient. A smarter use of resources is to concentrate police resources in

high crime areas and limit resources in areas that experience very little crime.

Research evidence suggests that this strategy does indeed have a positive impact on

crime. Researchers found that the 911 system received a heavy amount of calls for

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service from a small number of locations. Brief periods of intensive patrolling in

those high crime areas e�ectively reduced robberies and other crimes.

Other strategies, such as those used in the San Diego Field Interrogation Study,

have shown that aggressively interrogating suspicious persons can lead to a

reduction in both violent crime and disorder. The New York City Street Crimes Unit

has had success using decoys to apprehend repeat o�enders. By having an

undercover o�cer play a “perfect victim,” o�cers were able to increase

dramatically arrests of muggers.

Problem-oriented Policing

The traditional model of policing in the United States was decidedly reactive in

nature. The primary methods used by police were preventive patrols and retroactive

investigations. Early e�orts at innovation were designed to be proactive, but they

focused on the deterrence of crime through a limited “toolbox” of arrests,

summons, and citations. Recent decades have seen a shift in focus, due in large part

to the con�uence of two major developments in how both practitioners and

academics viewed policing. The �rst was Problem-Oriented Policing (POP), and the

other was a broader philosophy that would include POP, known as Community-

Oriented Policing (COP).

Problem-oriented policing began with a seminal article published by Herman

Goldstein in 1979. Goldstein essentially suggested that the basic, most fundamental

job of the police was to deal with community problems. To do this job e�ectively,

the police needed to develop a much larger toolbox, and a much more sophisticated

method of detecting, analyzing, and ultimately solving these problems. This

seminal article led to an explosion of interest and publication in the emerging �eld

of problem-oriented policing. The research suggested something extraordinary

about POP: it actually worked (see Braga, 2008 for a review of these studies).

A major tool in the analysis of community problems is the Problem Analysis Triangle.

The idea of the crime triangle is to depict graphically depict the interaction between

the features of the victim, the features of the location, and the features of the

o�ender. As Spelman and Eck (1989) point out, 10% of crime victims are involved in

up to 40% of victimizations, 10% of o�enders are involved in 50% of crimes, and

about 10% of addresses are the location for about 60% of crimes. This suggests that

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a focus on a few high-volume victims, o�enders, and locations can maximize the

impact of scarce police resources.

To understand the problem-solving process, it is helpful to consider what is meant

by “problem.” To understand the scope of problems of interest to police, it is

helpful to consider the police mission. Under the professional model of policing, the

focus was almost entirely on “catching bad guys.” Other duties were often

considered outside the prevue of “real police work.” Goldstein suggests the

following list of major police goals:

1. to prevent and control conduct threatening to life and property (including

serious crime);

2. to aid crime victims and protect people in danger of physical harm;

3. to protect constitutional guarantees, such as the right to free speech and

assembly;

4. to facilitate the movement of people and vehicles;

5. to assist those who cannot care for themselves, including the intoxicated, the

addicted, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, the elderly, and the young;

6. to resolve con�icts between individuals, between groups, or between citizens

and their government;

7. to identify problems that have the potential for becoming more serious for

individuals, the police or the government; and

8. to create and maintain a feeling of security in the community

Community-oriented Policing

Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that

support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to

proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues

such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. A dramatic departure from

traditional policing is the idea of collaborative partnerships. These partnerships are

between police agencies and the individuals and organizations they serve. These

partnerships are designed to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in

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police. To accomplish these goals, important changes must be made within

departments. There must be a realignment of organizational management,

structure, personnel, and information systems to support community partnerships

and proactive problem-solving.

Community policing recognizes that the idea of a small band of o�cers, no matter

how well-intentioned and well trained, can solve all of the crime, delinquency, and

disorder problems in a society as vast and complex as that of the United States.

Rarely can solve public safety problems alone. Community policing encourages

interactive partnerships with relevant stakeholders. The range of potential partners

is large, and these partnerships can be used to accomplish the two interrelated

goals of developing solutions to problems through collaborative problem solving

and improving public trust. A fundamental principle of community policing is that

“The public should play a role in prioritizing and addressing public safety

problems” (COPS O�ce, 2014, p. 4).

P A R T N E R S H I P S

Police departments can partner with a number of other government agencies to

identify community concerns and o�er alternative solutions. Examples of agencies

include legislative bodies, prosecutors, probation and parole, public works

departments, neighboring law enforcement agencies, health and human services,

child support services, ordinance enforcement, and schools. In addition, people

who live, work, or otherwise have an interest in the community volunteers,

activists, formal and informal community leaders, residents, visitors and tourists,

and commuters-are a valuable resource for identifying community concerns. These

diverse members of the community can be engaged in achieving speci�c goals at

town hall meetings, neighborhood association meetings, decentralized o�ces and

storefronts in the community, and team beat assignments. Community-based

organizations that provide services to the community and advocate on its behalf

can be powerful partners. These groups often work with or are composed of

individuals who share common interests and can include such entities as victim

groups, service clubs, support groups, issue groups, advocacy groups, community

development corporations, and the faith community.

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For-pro�t businesses also have a great stake in the health of the community and

can be key partners because they often bring considerable resources to bear in

addressing problems of mutual concern. Businesses can help identify problems and

provide resources for responses, often including their own security technology and

community outreach. The local chamber of commerce and visitor centers can also

assist in disseminating information about police and business partnerships and

initiatives, and crime prevention practices. The media represent a powerful

mechanism by which to communicate with the community. They can assist with

publicizing community concerns and available solutions, such as services from

government or community agencies or new laws or codes that will be enforced. In

addition, the media can have a signi�cant impact on public perceptions of the

police, crime problems, and fear of crime.

O R G A N I Z A T I O N A L C H A N G E

The community policing philosophy focuses on the way that departments are

organized and managed and how the infrastructure can be changed to support the

philosophical shift behind community policing. It encourages the application of

modern management practices to increase e�ciency and e�ectiveness. Community

policing emphasizes changes in organizational structures to institutionalize its

adoption and infuse it throughout the entire department, including the way it is

managed and organized, its personnel, and its technology. Under the community

policing model, police management infuses community policing ideals throughout

the agency by making a number of critical changes in climate and culture,

leadership, formal labor relations, decentralized decision making and

accountability, strategic planning, policing and procedures, organizational

evaluations, and increased transparency. Changing the climate and culture means

supporting a proactive orientation that values systematic problem solving and

partnerships. Formal organizational changes should support the informal networks

and communication that take place within agencies to support this orientation.

L I N E O F F I C E R B U Y - I N

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If community policing is going to be e�ective, police unions and similar forms of

organized labor must be a part of the process and function as partners in the

adoption of the community policing philosophy. Including labor groups in decisions

about agency changes can ensure support for the changes that are imperative to

community policing implementation. Experience has shown that departments that

try to implement community policing without line o�cer support will almost

certainly fail.

Key Terms

Automobile Patrol, Community Oriented Policing (COP), Community Policing,

Control Group, Foot Patrol, Herman Goldstein, Hot Spot, Investigator, Kansas City

Preventive Patrol Experiment, Line O�cer, Police Union, Problem Analysis

Triangle, Problem-Oriented Policing (POP), San Diego Field Interrogation Study,

Stakeholder, Town Hall Meeting

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Last Updated:  06/04/2021

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Fixing American Policing

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