Police PatrolManagement Question: How do you most effectively allocate police personnel? Answered with the tools of scientific management.

PATROL - the backbone of policing

•Majority of officers assigned to Patrol provide the bulk of police services

•Patrol officers as “Gatekeepers” to CJS

•Patrol is the formative part of an officer’s career• Assignments based upon seniority

• New officers start where? Patrol• Street experience is shared among all officers: bonding• Patrol considered least desirable assignment

Police PatrolFUNCTIONS OF PATROL

• Deter Crime

• Enhance sense of public safety through police presence

• To make officers available for service delivery by physically distributing them throughout space

Police PatrolORGANIZATION & DELIVERY OF PATROL

• Number of Officers: Police-Population Ratio

•Has little relationship to crime rate or calls for service•Cities with high crime often have more officers

•Allocation & Distribution of Officers to Patrol•Based on workload formulas

•Time of Day (more serious crime at night)•Location (crime/disorder more common in poorer areas; lower income disproportionately racial minority)•Questions: -No standard among police depts.

-Geographic changes in neighborhoods

ORGANIZATION & DELIVERY OF PATROL

Assignment to Shifts & Areas–Variety of Assignment Methods

•Seniority System

•Rotation

•Research (PERF) on frequent shifting shows effects include loss of sleep, health probs, on-the-job accidents, family probs, low morale

•Hot Spots: Areas that receive a disproportionate number of calls for service

–Sherman (1989) Minneapolis Study: 5% of addresses account for 64% of calls (60% no calls)

»http://www.carltown.net/crmemap.htm

Hot Spots

Mapping and Patrol

TYPES OF PATROLMost (84%) police patrol is automobile

Cars provide more efficient patrol than foot–Cover more area, pass each point more often–Patrol in an unpredictable manner

–Respond quickly to calls for service–Shift from foot to car occurs from 1920-1950s–Consequences of patrol cars

•loss of direct contact with citizens (especially law-abiding)

•citizens may begin to see police as “occupying army”

Police Operations•Foot Patrol

•Police-community relations crises of 1960s restores use of foot patrols

•Also important in community policing models

•Costs:–coverage area is much more limited–expensive

•Benefits:–gains in police-community relations

More on Patrol as the Modal method of Policing

• Number of officers per patrol unit:– How many officers do you commit to a unit?

• 1 or 2• Most involve single officer, • though police rank and file have traditionally called for

more 2 officer units. Why?• Rank and file concerns about 1 officer units unfounded:

– Assaulted less often– Made more arrests– Wrote more crime reports

Styles of Patrol• Individual Styles of officers are important

– Amount of work accomplished (productivity: volume of arrests, response to calls for service) depends on officer work style

– Active• Officer-initiated actions (stops, questioning, traffic,

frisking)

– Re-active• Citizen initiated work: Officers may be passive or

active in their response to complaints

Styles of Patrol• Supervisory Styles also important

– How closely is patrol work scrutinized by shift supervisor? Expectations for appropriate police behavior & productivity impact patrol

– Research on Patrol Sergeants supports this idea– Active role of Sergeants often is in terms of suggestion:

protection of discretion as a fundamental part of police work

• Organizational Styles– JQ Wilson: 3 Styles:

• Watchman: emphasizes peacekeeping; not aggressive in law enforcement; little control over officers

• Legalistic: aggressive crime-fighting; greater control over officers• Service: responsiveness to community expectations; more

common in low-crime communities

How effective is Patrol?

• Aspects of evaluating the effectiveness of police patrol:– Response Time is the gold standard for police &

Public• Response time should increase likelihood of arrest• Should increase satisfaction with police

– Research does not support Response Time• Little direct impact on clearance rates• Largely due to cold crime phenomena

– Discovery time by citizens– Reporting time to police– Both are largely beyond police control

Use of Time on Patrol

• How is patrol time utilized by cops? Largest breakdown is b/t committed vs. uncommitted time

• Lots of contradictory evidence about how much time is committed time

• Regardless, police presence is always provided by patrol, even if officers are “evading” duty.

How effective is Patrol?•Random Patrol

–Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment 1972-73–Landmark event in American policing–1st scientific experiment of patrol effectiveness–Funded by 3rd party (Police Foundation)–Research Design

•15 Beats divided into 3 groups–Reactive Beats: no preventive patrol, officers only respond–Proactive Beats: beats patrolled 2-3 times normal rate–Control Beats: normal level of patrol

•Measured impact of different levels of patrol

Patrol Effectiveness–Research Design

•Measured impact of different levels of patrol–Criminal Activity

»Reported Crime»Arrest»Victimization Survey

–Community Perceptions and Attitudes–Officer Behavior and Dept Practices

•Findings & Implications–No significant effect on:

»criminal activity

»citizen feelings of safety

»citizen attitudes toward the police

»crime rates

»citizen recognition of different levels of patrol

Patrol Effectiveness–Explanations for non-findings?

•Patrol spread too thin•Crimes occurring indoors unaffected•“Phantom” effect of patrol

•Levels of patrol were only thing tested, not officer activities

–Stimulated interest in application to tests of Foot Patrol (Newark Foot Patrol Experiment 1978-79)

•Similar design•Findings:

–Little or no impact on measurable serious crime–Significant improvement in community perceptions:

»less fear of crime»More positive attitudes about police (vice-versa)

Police OperationsPolice Investigations1) Police are expected to help prevent crime (most frequently through patrol)

Basic element of COP & POP

Rejects traditional model that police are responsible for crime control

2) Apprehend Criminals

Requirements: a. learning of a crime

b. official recording

c. attempt to ID and arrest

Police OperationsPolice InvestigationsFactors influencing the reporting of crime:

–Learn through reactive response most common–Citizen reporting highly discretionary (gatekeepers)–Police rarely discover crimes in progress–Victims report roughly 35% of the time

–Influences on reporting: seriousness, violence, injury, expense of loss

–Reasons for not reporting: crime unimportant, pessimistic about anything being done, crimes as private

Police OperationsPolice Investigations

Myths about Detective Work: The CSI complex: Exciting, Requires courage/skill, all crime is “solvable”

Organization of Investigations: located in different unit, size varies tremendously

Detective Position: high status, discretion, autonomy, no uniforms, defined measures of performance

Status varies by unit (homicide highest)

Police OperationsPolice Investigations

Investigation is 2 Staged Process:

1) Preliminary Investigation (5 Steps)

- ID and arrest of suspect

- Aid to victims (medical)

- Securing crime scene

- Collecting physical evidence

- Preparing preliminary report

Patrol makes 80% of all arrests (suspect near the scene)

Police OperationsPolice Investigations

2) Follow up investigations

case is assigned to detectives for follow up

- routine activities: interviews, crime scene

- secondary activities: canvassing witnesses, discussing case with super., collecting evidence

- tertiary activities: discussion of case with other officers, interviewing suspects, checking records, conducting stakeouts

Police OperationsPolice Investigations

Arrest discretion: arrests occur in only about half of the situations where sufficient evidence exists to arrest (Black 1984)

Officers influenced by situational factors: severity, evidence, victim behavior, victim/suspect relationship, suspect demeanor

What is an arrest?

4 Perspectives:

1. Legal: When a suspect is not free to leave

2. Behavioral: may include command to stop; physical restraint (cuffs)

3. Subjective: Citizen perception

4. Official: arrest report filed, records vary in different departments and at different stages

Consequence? Many people believe an arrest has occurred when no record of an arrest exists

Success/Failure in Crime solving

From a police standpoint, success is when an arrest is made

Most important factor in successful arrest is knowledge of suspect identityMost common: violent crime; V/O relationship

21% of all reported Index Crimes are cleared

Much of this is due to “structural” factors of the case. Evidence is mixed on whether police can have an impact on investigation success

Technology is not as useful a tool as culture views it (3% of NYPD cases with usable fingerprints result in an arrest)

Improving Investigation & Special Techniques

Encourage more Cooperation:• Between police and citizens• Between patrol and detective units

Special Investigation Strategies:

• Undercover work– Problems: socializing officers to “lie”, going native, weakens ties to

conventional others, lack of supervision

• Informants– Especially useful in “victimless” crimes (drugs); basis of exchange

creates appearances of conflicts of interest; integrity of police; quality of informant info

Crimes that define Contemporary Police Work

• Drugs• Crack has been the defining influence on police work in

the past 20 years• Business competition in illicit markets creates violence

• Decrease over the past decade

– Proactive Approach is somewhat unique relative to police responses to other kinds of crime

Contemporary Police Work: Drug Enforcement Strategies

• Supply Reduction• Buy & Bust: undercover officers pose as buyers• Trading Up: (Identify “kingpins” through lower level dealers as informants)• Penetration of Drug Networks through long-term undercover work• Crackdown: intensive enforcement in specific areas (neighborhoods)• Effective? Generally no…

– Threat of arrest is not effective as a deterrent – why?– Replacement effect in network– Trading Up ineffective

• Demand Reduction• Drug Education Programs (DARE)• Largely ineffective

• Continue to operate proactively• Generate positive publicity• High profile “busts” create the appearance of effectiveness

Crimes that define Contemporary Police Work

• Drugs continued:– Impact on Minorities in the War on Drugs?

– Minimal Racial differences in drug use– Significant differences in drug arrests

• Hate Crimes

• Gangs

• Domestic Violence?