Gun Violence Programs: Directed Police Patrols, Essay Example

It appears that this police action has contributed to effectiveness because the drug use rate is down 8 percent in the area. Furthermore, this process is efficient because it allows police officers to directly observe these drug sales. It is beneficial because citizens’ approval of the police have increased as a result of this policy.

Both articles suggest that rapid response does not matter with most crimes because it has little effect on clearance rates. Most calls do not require an immediate response because since only about 3 percent of crimes are reported while they are in progress, immediate response does not increase in the police’s ability to arrest a perpetrator. Involvement crimes occur when the victim is present, while discovery crimes occur when the victim notices that the crime was committed after the fact.

Differential police response is a management tool that is used to determine the length of time that is required for police response for each request for help made (Sherman et al., 1973). This is intended to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of police agencies because it allows the police to prioritize requests based on urgency of response. Effectiveness is the ability of the police to resolve the case while efficiency is their ability to do it in a time sensitive manner. Differential police response will increase effectiveness because police will be able to solve more cases. Meanwhile, efficiency will increase because the time sensitive cases will be responded to first.

The Kansas City Study intended to determine whether traditional preventative control had an impact on controlling crime (Kelling et al., 1974). Three types of patrolling were used in experimental areas: reactive, proactive, and control. The authors say that they tested the efficacy of each method determining its impact on the ability to prevent crime and make arrests. The questions that were raised in response to the study include whether the results were as effective as they seemed and whether routine preventative patrol is an effective measure.

Directed patrol allows police to work closely with civilians to address their concerns and bolster community support (National Institute of Justice, n.d.). Directed patrol is preferred because it is more effective in preventing crime. Sherman and Weisburd find that increased police presence alone leads to crime reduction.

Eck proposed that there are three hypotheses that explain the ability of experimental studies to provide results that claim that crime rates have been reduced. In one scenario, offenders are not sent to prison, but are intimidated by police presence and are therefore deterred. The second scenario states that police enter initiatives because they believe that it is a part of a national initiative. In a third scenario, stolen property will be returned due to police attention.

The Rand study claims that detectives are effective. However, Skogan and Antunes claims that these results are unsurprising due to inherent bias and it is likely that this is not the true case.

Community policing has been so difficult to measure because it is difficult to provide a control for the methods that are used, not all crimes are reported so it is difficult to calculate a clear value that reflects crime reduction, and it is difficult to measure the information that is provided by the community that helps the police solve crimes.

Zero tolerance policies prevent individuals in authority positions from changing punishments to subjectively fit the circumstances (Rowe et al., 2002).This differs from the author methods in which police have an influence on the ability to assign punishment and the degree of the punishment. This approach has drawbacks because no crime is a “one size fits all” situation. Punishment will depend on the particular details of the law violation.

References

Kelling GL, Plate T, Dieckman D, Brown, CE. (1974). The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment. Retrieved from http://www.policefoundation.org/sites/pftest1.drupalgardens.com/files/Kelling%20et%20al.%20(1974)%20- %20THE%20KANSAS%20CITY%20PREVENTIVE%20PATROL%20EXPERIMENT.pdf

National Institute of Justice. (n.d.). Gun Violence Programs: Directed Police Patrols. Retrieved from http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/gun-violence/prevention/pages/directed-patrols.aspx

Rowe M, Bendersky C. (2002). Workplace Justice, Zero Tolerance and Zero Barriers: Getting People to Come Forward in Conflict Management Systems. Cornell University Press.

Sherman LW, Milton CH, Kelly T. (1973). Team Policing: Seven Case Studies. Washington, DC: Police Foundation.