The Practice of Policing

Learning Objectives

This chapter examines the practices used by police to control crime with an emphasis on changes introduced since the 1970s.
Despite the incorporation of new technologies into policing practices, traditional police patrols remain a primary focus.
Patrol work involves the uneven integration of preventive and reactive patrol methods.

Preventive Patrols: Uniformed officers patrol by foot or vehicle to deter crime.
Reactive Patrols: Introduced in the 1920s; police respond to incidents after they occur, prioritizing rapid response as a measure of police success.
Both approaches employed a one-size-fits-all strategy; they treated all crimes similarly without focusing on specific community needs.

Criticisms emerged in the late 20th century regarding the effectiveness of reactive policing:
- Community Disparities: Middle-class communities reported fewer crimes and quicker responses compared to marginalized communities, where police were seen as unresponsive and disrespectful (Kirk and Papachristos 2015).
- Perceived Ineffectiveness: Communities feeling unserved often resorted to taking justice into their own hands.
- Demand for Change: Growing frustrations prompted calls for new policing strategies focused on community engagement and proactive measures.

Incident-based Policing: Belief that quick police response times could apprehend suspects, which led to minimal community interaction and patrol officers being perceived as outsiders.
Goals of patrol:
- Maintain police presence.
- Provide quick responses to emergencies.
- Detect crime (Langworthy and Travis 1994).
Patrol officers engage in various types of roles, including
- neighborhood disputes, animal control, noise complaints, etc.

Success metrics focused on response times and arrest rates; however, believed decreased crime should be achieved.
Critiques of Efficiency: Studies suggested public reporting times were crucial for apprehensions rather than just police response times.
Due to the criticisms, police agencies began to reassess their strategies leading to recognition of the need for alternatives.

Core components:
- Random preventive patrol.
- Patrol officer rapid response rates.
- Reactive investigations.
Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment (1972-1973): Demonstrated that routine preventive patrols did not reduce crime, only reaffirmed the community's perception of policing effectiveness.

Emergence of proactive policing in the late 1970s was motivated by social unrest and a re-evaluation of existing strategies.
- Proactive approaches aimed to enhance police-community relationships and target the root causes of crime.

Introduced again in the late 1970s, emphasizing community interaction.
Studies such as the Flint Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program showed mixed results in crime reduction but significantly increased community satisfaction and perceived safety.

Focused patrols based on crime analyses seeking to reduce specific crime types.
- Technological innovations supported the deployment of directed patrols, optimizing resource allocation based on data-driven insights.

Concept Overhaul: Introduced by Herman Goldstein (1979), focusing on understanding crime causes rather than mere incident responses.
- Principles of problem-oriented policing:
1. Community concern-driven.
2. Group or pattern of incidents rather than single incidents.
3. Understanding competing interests.
4. Long-term strategies versus quick fixes.
5. Creativity and initiative are essential in problem solving.

Defined as establishing partnerships between police and communities; aims to encourage public engagement and enhance public safety.
Key aims include:
- Building community partnerships.
- Organizational change.
- Focused on cooperative problem-solving.

Emerged post-9/11 as a strategy emphasizing data analysis and strategic interagency collaboration.
Emphasizes proactive approaches in identifying and addressing crime before it occurs.

Applies data analysis techniques to predict potential crimes and offenders.
Comprises:
1. Crime prediction methods.
2. Offender identification methods.
3. Offender profiling methods.
4. Victim identification methods.

Targets high-risk offenders with concentrated law enforcement attention while providing social services to deter crime.
Involves multi-agency collaboration for community crime reduction strategies (e.g., Operation Ceasefire in Boston).

Police culture includes the shared values, beliefs, and practices among officers, influencing daily interactions with citizens and the organizational environment.
Cultural attributes include:
- Loyalty among officers.
- Perception of the public as unsupportive.
- Rigid adherence to the law regarding conduct and decision-making.

Officers employ mechanisms such as suspicion and maintaining control (dominance) to navigate their interactions within the community.
The internal culture often leads to resistance against new ideas such as community-oriented approaches.

Professional model of policing characterized by reactive approaches.
Limitations of reactive policing led to the adoption of proactive strategies with community engagement.
The broken windows theory emphasizes early intervention to prevent crime escalation.
New policing methods include community policing, problem-oriented and intelligence-led policing, each targeting different aspects of crime and disorder.