1. Executive Issues Seminar Series Executive Issues Seminar Series 1998
Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas
Sam Houston State University

2. Dr. Larry Hoover Police Research Center Sam Houston State University
PATROL RESEARCH
Dr. Larry Hoover
Police Research Center
Sam Houston State University

3. Last Year’s Program: Why the Drop in Crime?
Social-demographic Trends
Economic Conditions
Drug Use Prevalence
Incarceration Rates
Police Programs.

5. Myth: The Police Make No Difference
Borne first of the lack of clear relationship between staffing levels and crime rates
Reinforced by the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment and the Rand Criminal Investigation Study.

6. Crime-Specific Policing
Clearly defined intervention strategies
Targeted at particular offenses
Committed by particular offenders
At specific places
At specific times.

7. Crime-Specific Policing is NOT:
Unfocused Strategies
Non-Directed Patrol
Simple Saturation Patrol
Change in Style
New York City COMSTAT Program
Houston Proactive Effort in 1992

8. However, Crime-Specific Policing is Not Necessarily:
Focused upon only a single offense
Conducted solely by Patrol
Always a direct field based intervention
Antithetical to Community Oriented Approaches

9. We Will Examine: Neighborhood Centered Targeted Enforcement
Youth & Gang Programs
Problem-Oriented Strategies
Proactive Investigative Techniques

10. The 25 Year Research Legacy on Patrol A Brief Synopsis
Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment (1973)
San Diego Field Interrogation Experiment (1975)
Directed Patrol in New Haven and Pontiac (1976)
Split Force Patrol in Wilmington (1976)
Newark and Flint Foot Patrol (1981)
Minneapolis Repeat Call Address (Recap) (1988)
Kansas City Gun Reduction Experiment (1993)

11. Other Research (examined later)
Problem Oriented Policing in Newport News
Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment and Its Replications
Investigative Effectiveness Research

12. Preventive Patrol Experiment

13. Preventive Patrol Experiment Beat Configuration

14. Generalizing the Results
No effect on crime
No effect on citizen perceptions
No effect on traffic accidents
However
Routine Preventive Patrol is Non-directive
Activity varies by Dept./Shift/Officer
Only about 2 hours of an 8 hour shift
Results apply only to beat level perceptions

15. San Diego Field Interrogation
Three Areas
Control
Specially Trained Officers
“No” Field Interrogations
Time
Pre - 7 months
Experimental - 9 months
Post - 5 months

16. Measured Suppressible Street Crime
Part I offenses of robbery, burglary, auto theft, street rape, street theft
Other offenses included other sex crimes, vandalism, and disorderly conduct.

17. Effect on Crime in Experimental Areas

18. Other Results No change in control or specially trained areas
About one month lag time in effect
No effect on community relations
In San Diego, 17% of all arrests attributed to FIs, but less than 2% of FIs result in an arrest
About 3% of all citizen complaints result from field interrogations.

19. Directed Patrol in New Haven & Pontiac
Use of crime analysis to direct non-committed patrol time to problem locations
Direction by dispatchers proved problematic
Reduction in criminal incidents (but lacked control areas)

20. Wilmington Split-Force Concept
Bifurcated patrol, 70% in Basic, 30% in Structured
Structured concentrated on problem areas and follow-up
Patrol’s arrest rate up 4%, clearances up 105% - however, detective division clearances down 61%, department as a whole down by 28%
Abandoned after one year.

21. Newark & Flint Foot Patrol
No impact on crime in Newark, 9% reduction in Flint
Decreases in fear of crime in both cities
Significantly improved satisfaction with police services in both - 33% of Flint residents knew officer by name, 50% of remainder could recognize the beat officer
Newark research beget the “Broken Windows” perspective
Flint research beget the community oriented perspective.

22. Minneapolis Recap Experiment
3% of 115,000 addresses accounted for 50% of CFS
5% of addresses generated 64% of all CFS
Special unit of 5 officers assigned 125 residential & 125 commercial addresses
After 6 months, target addresses had 15% fewer CFS, but erased after one year.

23. Kansas City Gun Reduction Experiment
July 92 to Jan 93 two extra patrol units in Beat 144 during evening
Beat 144 is an 8 x 10 block area with homicide rate of 177/100, times national average
Beat is 92% nonwhite, but 66% home ownership
Gun seizures increased by 65%, gun crimes declined by 40%. No change in Control Beat, no displacement
Drive by shootings & homicides dropped significantly
Saturation generated 29 more guns seized, 83 fewer gun crimes, 55 patrol hours invested per gun crime prevented, traffic stops most productive - one gun seized for every 28 stops.

24. Efficacy of Crime-Specific Approaches
San Diego Field Interrogation Experiment
Problem Oriented Policing in Newport News
Flint Foot Patrol
Minneapolis Recap
Kansas City Gun Reduction

25. Crime-Specific Policing
Clearly defined intervention strategies
Targeted at particular offenses
Committed by particular offenders
At specific places
At specific times.

27. A Final Note In 25 years we have learned a great deal
However, we still know relatively little about what works in policing.

28. TIME FOR THE RECEPTION