Prior to the 1970’s, law enforcement agencies were completely unaware of how effective their methods of policing and patrolling truly were, if they were even effective at all. After questioning the efficiency of their methods for so long, the Kansas City Police Department decided to conduct an experiment on preventative patrol. This experiment focused on four main questions-- would the public notice, would visible police affect crime, would the citizens’ fear of crime diminish, and would police satisfaction change. Although preventative patrol has the aspects of a powerful policing method, this landmark experiment may have produced some interesting and thought provoking results on the topic.
To be able to effectively prevent future crime,
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The first question focused on the public. The police department wanted to see if the public would notice the change in the number of patrol officers. This was important because another key question the experiment was focused around was if the citizens in the corresponding areas felt safer in cities where crime heavily patrolled by officers. To answer these questions, the Kansas City Police Department sent out community wide surveys before and after the experiment occurred. Oddly enough, upon completion of their experiment, the Kansas City Police Department found that citizens did not notice the difference when the level of patrol was changed and the public, as a general whole, did not appear to have an increase in their sense of safety even in areas where patrol was heavily augmented. Accordingly, police satisfaction was not greatly altered either. This was mainly due to the fact that citizens did not notice the change in the amount of patrol officers. Because of this impalpable change, citizens in these areas were unaffected and many of them believed the police were engaging in their normal preventative patrol
In addition, the success that has come from the implementation of the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy only shows that in the future it will become more successful. This program has helped improve the residents’ confidence that the police are there to help combat crime, to ensure the community is a safe place to live as well as a reduction in major crimes. “Evaluations of the alternative policing strategy in Chicago show that from 1993 to 2002, the fear of crime went down by 20% among groups most fearful of crime and
I will start with fifteen officers from the Tupelo Police Department. The list consists of five street officers, three administrators, and seven training officers. These officers range from a mixture of statuses to get an idea as to who hires, what training is implemented, and the affects of that training on the streets. The area selected is a rural area in Lee County. I will get an official informed consent signed by the mayor of Tupelo to conduct the study and I will get an official copy signed by the chief of Tupelo Police Department, and the officers involved.
The city council of Smithville believes that increasing the visibility of its police force will reduce crime and increase the safety of its citizens. However, the memo provides no evidence to support this argument, and the city council may not be taking other variables, alternative solutions, or the citizens’ desires into consideration.
1. The results of the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment were really surprising to the public and the police. What do you think were the main reasons why different levels of motorized patrol failed to have any impact on crime or public perception? (p. 93)
The Philadelphia foot patrol experiment: a randomized controlled trial of police patrol effectiveness in violent crime hotspots is an experiment that had over 200 foot patrol officers during the summer of 2009, in the Philadelphia area (Ratcliffe, 2011). This research covered 60 violent crime hotspots in twelve weeks (Ratcliffe, 2001). There was a noticeable reduction in the violent crimes within those area hotspots. Furthermore, 53% of violent crimes were prevented during the twelve weeks of the experiment (Ratcliffe, 2011). In conjunction the type of patrol that was utilized, was foot patrol in the hotspot areas, which was the independent variable. The dependent variable was the reduction
The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment was conducted in October 1972 by the Kansas City Police to test the effects of marked police patrol units on the incidence of crime to deter crime and ended in 1973. The experiment lasted over a year and was evaluated by the Police Foundation, established by the Ford Foundation, which also provided funding and technical assistance for the education of police. The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment in policing ranked among the few major social experiments ever to be completed and still used today in American policing. (Kelling, G. L., Pate, T., Dieckman, D., & Brown, C. E., 1974)
Community Policing took a different perspective on crime than August Vollmer. It shows that even though police officers are trained and respond to crimes on time, it doesn’t effect the crime rates. In the past foot-patrol was in place but it quickly failed due to poor management and not enough funds for the program (Bohm & Haley, 2014, Pg. 147). Community Policing was an idea to form a bond between the police and the citizens. If the police paid more attention to the minor problems in
This program received much ridicule from law enforcement professionals as it decreased, in their eyes, the versatility of their service to the community. It seemed as that in removing officers from their patrol vehicles, it would not allow them to respond quickly to other calls and better protect their patrolled communities. As they came to find, it actually gave the people in those communities a greater sense of security and pride in their home turf.
I believe if the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment was conducted today different results would be revealed due to the fact that police strategies and tactics have changed over the years in response to changes in society, public pressures, aren research. Police executives must continually reassess their organizational technology and make adjustments to improve the attainment of the goals of protecting life and property and maintaining order. Today, the knowledge base related to what works in policing is much farther along in it development than even a decade ago, making it possible for police executives to strive toward the objective of evidence-based policing (Cordner, 2016). Moreover, evidence-based policing does not replace
A concern that has plagued contemporary society lately is the use of police force and the sometimes racial injustices seemingly perpetrated by police forces. This issue has caused many citizens to become distrustful of law enforcement and to develop a disdain for police officers. Numerous test, survey, and data have been collected on the subject to gain a better understanding of the growing problem between the police and a weary public. With a increasingly socialized world connecting citizens through different mediums such as the internet, television, and radio comes the newfound problems of old issues coming to a head.
The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment was a landmark experiment carried out between 1972 and 1973 by the Kansas City Police Department of Kansas City, Missouri. It was designed to test the assumption that the presence (or potential presence) of police officers in marked cars reduced the likelihood of a crime being committed. It was the first study to demonstrate that research into the effectiveness of different policing styles could be carried out responsibly and safely. The Kansas City Police Department drew the conclusion that routine preventive patrol in marked police cars has little value in preventing crime or making citizens feel safe and that resources normally allocated to these activities could safely be allocated elsewhere. A significant factor realized was that crime prevention was more highly dependent on the willingness of citizens to report suspicious and/or criminal behavior to Police than the levels or types of patrol.
How did the Kansas City Patrol Study affect routine patrol all across the nation? It affected routine patrol in the fact that It made officers realize that traditional routine patrol in marked police cars did not appear to affect the level of crime. Nor did it affect the public’s feeling of security. The experiment demonstrated that urban police departments can successfully test patrol deployment strategies, and that they can manipulate patrol resources without jeopardizing public safety.
Modern Policing Vs. Traditional Policing Today when people see police officers out on patrol, they believe that police officers have been patrolling the streets since the beginning of time. However, little do people actually know that the way police officers perform their duties have significantly changed from traditional methods of policing, to the modern-day methods of policing. Even though, these changes have created many improvements in a police department’s relationship with the community, there are also areas that have been greatly caused people to resist the modern-day approaches to policing.
Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.
Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2014). Policing in america (8th ed.). (S. Decker-Lucke, Ed.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved January 2017