Practice Flashcards
Practice
Criticized for not meeting the needs of contemporary society
Top down approach frequently leads to an overlap of responsibilities
Fails to promote personal ingenuity
Efficiency
Measured by responses times and arrest rates
Response times are adversely affected by the time it takes for citizens to call them
Arrest rates
Used but not ideal
- Much crime is simply not reported to police
- Many people are arrested, but not everyone is prosecuted
Clearance rates are an alternative
Other ways of measuring efficiency
Identity the number of arrests that lead to prosecutions
Fear reduction is another measure
The police role
Roles encompass rights and responsibilities with a particular position
Also exists role expectations and role conflicts
Police expected to occupy conflicting roles (social agent and crime fighter)
Muir noted different styles of policing
Professionals
Enforcers
reciprocators
Avoiders
Wilson identified four styles
Social agent
watchman
Law enforcer
Crime fighter
Patrol function
Backbone of policing
Introduced by peel
Purpose:
Deter crime
Maintain public order and sense of security
Provide 24 hour services
Police work involves activities unrelated to crime
80% of all calls involve incidents such as neighbourhood disputes, animal control, noise complaints, and locating lost children
Incident driven patrol
Reactive policing - occurs when the police react to citizens calls for help
Proactive - occurs when the police crack down on the street drug trade, prostitution, or set up fencing strings
- involves acting, often interacting with criminals before crime occurs
Directed patrol
When a police officers time is spent in certain locations
Effective at reducing automobile thefts and robberies
Hot spots and slight decreases in crime
Foot patrols
Patrolling until 1930s
The flint neighbourhood foot patrol program reduced crime slightly but generated greater confidence In the police and reduced the fear of crime
Three types of patrol
reaction
Proactive
Control
The different types did not affect crime rates, citizens attitudes towards officers, citizens fear of crime, rates of reported crime
Three explanation for why police patrols are ineffective
- Police patrols are spread out
- Many crimes cannot be prevented by police
- Some criminals are simply not affected by patrols (displacement)
The criminal investigation function
Involves obtaining information to recreate the circumstances of a crime
Include a preliminary investigation and a follow up investigation
About 8/10 off all arrests are made by patrol officers rather than detectives
Concerns about policing
- police patrols did not seriously reduce crime
- detectives did not reduce much crime
- arrests did not appear to significantly deter crime
- reactive policing did not seem to reduce crime
- use of private security forces
Broken windows model
Need the community to fight crime
- Neighbourhood disorder creates fear
- Disorder sends out crime promoting signals
- The police should get in cocked at the first signs of deterioration
Community policing
Concentrate on building stronger communities that police themselves
Decentralized mini stations
Community partnerships are important
Embrace issues of disorder, neighbourhood decay, fear of crime, and order maintenance
Zero tolerance
The focus is on order maintenance
Embraces the crime-attack model/ suppression
Communities may not be able to police themselves
Concentrates on specific types of crimes
Place specific oriented
Factors existing command structures
Intelligence led policing
Risk society during the Information Age - it uses computer assisted programs for identifying high crime places and recidivists
Target recidivists, manage hot spots, develop multiagency partnerships
Global in scope
Aboriginal policing
Began in 1978 in Quebec
First Nations policing policy 1991
319 agreements signed by 2005
Self administered agreement are the most common
Basic functions of the police
Patrol and Investigate crime
Problem oriented policing
Direct resources at the causes of crime
Kansas City gun project
Crime fighter
Law enforcer
Watch meant
Social agent
The crime fighter
Focusing entirely on the detection and apprehension of serious criminals.
Law enforcer
Enforcing all laws to the limit of their authority, including minor ones
The watchman
An emphasis on maintaining public order without necessarily making arrests, such as with moving drinks and the mentally ill along
The social agent
Problem solvers who work with community members, protect them from the outsiders and respond attentively to their local concerns
