Kansas City Patrol Study Notes

Experiment Overview

The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, in partnership with the Police Foundation, conducted a significant experiment involving the effectiveness of police patrol strategies across 15 patrol districts. This initiative aimed to evaluate the impact of varying levels of police presence on crime rates.

Methodology of the Experiment

Division of Patrol Districts

The 15 patrol districts were organized into three distinct groups based on specific criteria:

  • Size of the district
  • Record of calls for service
  • Demographic characteristics
    This method ensured that the groups were matched comparably for an unbiased analysis of the effects of different policing strategies.

Three Groups Established

  1. Control Beats

    • Retained the existing level of patrol that had been historically used in these districts.

  2. Proactive Beats

    • The number of patrol officers was doubled or even tripled compared to the normal deployment. This group aimed to assess whether increased police presence could reduce crime rates.

  3. Reactive Beats

    • No officers were engaged in preventive patrol. Officers in this group were exclusively responding to calls for service without any active patrolling efforts.

Duration of the Study

The study was conducted over a span of one year to monitor and analyze the crime rate outcomes across the different policing strategies.

Findings of the Study

At the end of the one-year study period, the analysis revealed that there were:

  • No significant differences in crime rates among the three groups of patrol districts.

Implications of Findings

The results indicated that:

  • The number of police officers present or the intensity of patrol did not influence crime rates. This finding was consistent across various crime categories, including burglaries, robberies, and vehicle thefts.
  • Disturbingly, the residents of Kansas City were largely unaware that there had been any alterations in patrol levels across the districts, suggesting that citizens did not perceive any notable changes in their safety or crime levels as a result of altered police presence.

Conclusion

These findings lead to a challenging conclusion that contradicts common assumptions in police work: The myth that adding more police officers will lead to a reduction in crime has been called into question based on this well-structured experimental approach. This suggests that simply increasing resources for police departments without considering the underlying factors of crime might not yield the desired outcomes in public safety.