Quiz #3 Flashcards
Central role of patrol?
Patrol officers majority assigned to patrol work
- They are the most important decision makers in policing and Gatekeepers in criminal justice system
- patrol is a formative part of a police officer’s career
Patrol duty is…?
- Considered the least desirable
- Most look for advancement, by promotion or assignment to something better, like detective work
FINAL Robert Peel (creator of Modern police) defined 3 functions:
3 Basic Functions of patrol:
- To deter crime
- To enhance feelings of public safety
- To make officers available for service
O.W. Wilson stated:
- patrol seeks to deter crime by creating “an impression of omnipresence” that will eliminate “the actual opportunity” (or the belief that opportunity exists)
The second function of patrol is to main feelings of public safety.
The visible presence of patrol officers assures citizens that they are being protected from crime
The third function of patrol is to make…
officers available for service by dispersing officers within the community
Albert Reiss stated
“No other professional operates in a comparable setting” Police only profession to make house calls
Factors Affecting the Delivery of Patrol Services
- Efficiency depends on:
1. The number of sworn officers
2. The percentage of officers assigned to patrol
3. The distribution of patrol officers by the time of day and area
4. The type of patrol used (car or foot)
5. One officer vs. two officer patrols
6. Work style of the patrol officers
Number of Sworn Officers in Washington DC
The nation’s capital, there were 6.3 sworn officers for every 1,000 people in 2008
Best secrets in policing is to add…
…just 1 officer on the street, an agency must hire an additional 10 officers
- 17% of these officers do not work because of sick days, required training, and other personal or professional activities
Police-population ratio?
The traditional measure of the level of police protection in a community
**The national average for larger municipal departments in 2008 was 2.5 officers per 1,000 population
FINAL Hot spot?
An area that receives a disproportionate number of calls for police service and/or has a very high crime rate.
FINALType of patrol?
- 84% police patrol in cars
- 4% patrol on foot
- 5% patrol on motorcycle
- 5% patrol on bicycles
3 styles of patrol?
- Individual style
- Supervisor style
- Organizational style
Officer-initiated activity (Individual Style)
- includes stopping, questioning, and frisking suspicious people, making informal contacts with law-abiding citizens, stopping vehicles for possible violations, writing traffic tickets, checking suspicious events, and making arrests.
Supervisor Style
- Officer’s activity can be shaped by supervisor’s style
FINAL Organizational Style
James Q. Wilson identified three different organizational styles:
- Watchmen
- Legalistic
- Service Style
Watchmen Style?
Emphasizes peacekeeping, without being agressive
Legalistic Style
Emphasizes aggressive crime fighting through a by the book approach
Service Style
Usually used where there is little crime, emphasizes responsive to the community expectation
A basic unit of police patrol consists of?
A sergeant and a crew of patrol officers
FINAL Span of control
that a supervisor can effectively manage only a limited number of officers
FINAL Contemporary 911-driven police work is?
- ) Citizen dominated
- ) Reactive
- ) Incident Based
FINAL 911 Systems
The 911 Emergency number was introduced by the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) first introduced in 1968.
First system went into operation where?
Haleyville, Alabama, right after President Kennedy was shot
911 systems have…?
…contributed to the great increase in calls for service.
– Police are able to manage delayed responses to certain nonemergency calls.
FINAL The communications center operators, dispatchers, and patrol officers are?
“Information Brokers” who receive citizen calls and translate them into official bureaucratic responses
Operators exercise…?
Tremendous discretion
How many calls result in police dispatch?
Only half
How many calls referred to other agencies?
17 percent
Operator…
- Takes information from caller in 16% of calls
- Gives information to citizen in 9%
- In 14% told that police can’t handle the call or call is transferred
Operator-Citizen Interaction
Need to provide officers with as much
accurate information as possible
Interactions lengthy, involving many
questions
Some questions gauge caller’s
trustworthiness
Others are a threat to caller’s personal
character/judgment
The Call Service Workload
—The Volume of Calls—
Depends on the area
Minneapolis: 550 per year
St. Paul: 221 per year
Type of Calls:
Order maintenance calls
Service calls
However, many situations are ambiguous
Response time?
To calls is part of policing
4 things in response time:
- ) Discovery time - when crime is committed to when it’s discovered Can’t be controlled by police
- ) Reporting time - Between discovery time and when citizen calls police
- ) Processing time - Time between the call and dispatch of a police car
- ) Travel Time - Time it takes police officer to reach crime scene
Citizens delay calling the police for several reasons
- To verity that crime actually occurred
- To regain their composure
- To call a friend or family first
- To decide if they want police involved
- Telephone not immediately available
POPN
Project on Policing Neighborhoods
- Best study on routine police work
- Study found patrol officers only spend 20% of their time per shift on general patrol and 15% traveling to locations.
- Community-policing officers spent less time in general patrol
Evading duty?
Officers can create free time for themselves by delaying calls
In pursuits…
…police departments give officers broad discretion about engaging in pursuits
Operation 25?
The NYC Police Department doubled the number of patrol officers in the 25th Precinct for four months during 1954.
- The department stated increase patrol decreased muggings by 90%
- Flaw: Didn’t take displacement into consideration
Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment
read on p. 220 and 221
-Controversial results
-Challenged traditional assumptions about
patrol
– Basically there was no significant changes in behavior or lifestyle because of perceived changes in police protection
- Level of patrol did not affect attitudes towards police
- Patrol had no impact on crime
- Patrol didn’t make citizens feel safe
many crimes are impulsive and happen indoors
Newark Foot Patrol Experiment
STUDY FOUND:
- Patrol did not decrease crime
- But did effect citizens attitudes
- Reduced fear of crime
- More positive and supported police
Differential Response?
Classifying calls according to seriousness
Telephone Reporting Units
- Handle calls by taking reports over the phone, 10-20% of calls on some shifts
311 non-emergency Numbers
- For less serious situations
Non-English 911 Call Services
- Growing number of people do not speak English, patrol officers call this number for a translator
Police aides or cadets
- Alternative method of handling low-priority calls is to use nonsworn personnel
Street Skills Training for Patrol Officers
- Two-day course focused on “high-risk, low frequency” events eg. pursuit or shooting tactics
Directed patrol
Program example, involve instruction to look for specific persons or types of crimes, or patrol in specific areas
Order Maintenance?
Many officers view it as “garbage” “social work” or bullshit”
Stephen Mastrofski identifies 4 ways that noncrime calls for service can help improve effectiveness in dealing with crime:
- ) Crime prophylactic model - that police can defuse violent situations and help in deescalating
- ) Police knowledge Model - that noncrime calls give officers a lot of exposure to the community, so gives them knowledge
- ) Social Work Model - That power of police helps make lawbreakers into law-abiding citizens
- ) Community Cooperation Model - Helps establish credibility with public
However, the models assume that crime fighting is the central part of policing, and noncrime calls is additional
Citizens have different reasons for calling the police for noncrime situations…
- ) To maintain a social boundary
- ) To relieve unpleasant situations (eg. noise complaints)
- ) Counterpunching ( to divert attention from a crime)
- ) To obtain an emergency service (eg. missing child, suicide)
What is the most common type of order maintenance?
Traffic Enforcement
**Police departments and citizens influence traffic enforcement policies, causes friction
Drunk-driving crackdowns
- Small percentage of all drivers are drunk
- 5% drunk on an average weekend
- Higher percentage on weekends
Domestic violence disputes…
…33% involve some form of violence
Intimate partner violence
- Has decreased a lot from 1993 to 2010
- Violence against women decreased by 50% during this time
NCVS survey in regards to domestic violence calls…
…found non-white females more likely to call police than white
- Middle class women more likely to turn to private sources for help
- Low income family more likely to have more economic equality to spouse
Ways police exercise discretion in domestic violence calls?
- ) Arrest
- ) Mediation
- ) Separating parties
- ) Refer to other agency
- ) No action at all
Factors influencing the arrest decision in domestic violence?
- officers see it as a private matter
- Often victim drops charges
- victims call for help, but don’t want them arrested
- Increases work for the officer
- Don’t view domestic violence as a priority compared to murder or rape
The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment
- 1981-1982
- sought to determine the deterrent effect of arrest, mediation, and separation
- Each officer carried a color-coded pad of forms and handed each case according to the color of the form
- Study found arrest = lower rates of repeat violence than separation or mediation.
- This study impacted public policy
- In other cities the experiment failed and showed that arrests escalated violence among unemployed people than those employed. Found that arrests effect differently on different people.
Mandatory arrests…
- Discourage calls
- Disproportionate impact on lower class men, and poor African American men particularly.
Policing Vice
Focus on victimless crimes (eg. prostitution, liquor laws)
- ) Police must initiate investigation on their own
- ) Many people view it as private matter
- ) Enforcement is inconsistent
Prostitution…
…It is estimated that there are about 250,000 full-time prostitutes
Streetwalkers?
Known as hustlers, hookers, most visible to the public
Bar Girls?
Work at bars, with managers who receive a small percentage.
Skeezers?
These prostitutes sell sex for crack cocaine
Brothel prostitutes
Work in large establishments owned by a single person (massage parlors and escort services have emerged)
Call Girls
Upper end of economic scale of prostitution
FINAL Policing the Homeless
- ) It is reactive, police respond to calls.
- ) Example, Seattle PD uses Community Service Officers (CSO) street team refers homeless people to shelters, drug treatment programs, and financial assistance services.
FINAL Policing the Mentally ill
Most studies estimate that 7 to 10 percent of police contacts are with mentally ill persons
FINAL Police exercise great discretion when dealing with mentally ill, options are:
- ) hospitalization
- ) Arrest
- ) Informal disposition
Psychiatric first aid?
When officers use informal tactics when dealing with mentally ill by calming them down
FINAL Mercy booking?
When officers arrest a mentally ill for misdemeanor so they get the care they need, so they are safe from streets
FINAL CIT?
Crisis Intervention Team, in Akron, Ohio, first agencies to replicate the Memphis CIT model
- Officers team up with Community Support Services to help those who are “at risk”
Police-Based Specialized Response?
Involves sworn officers who have extensive training in dealing with mentally ill
Police-Based Specialized Mental Health Response?
Involves utilizing mental health professionals, not officers
Mental-Health Based Specialized Mental Health Response?
Involves formal agreements with police department and mental health organizations
Policing Juveniles
- ) Police have high level of contact with people under 18
- ) Young people express more negative attitudes toward the police
- ) Juveniles represent significantly in crime problem in the US
FINAL Proactive
Anticrime strategies (eg. drug enforcement is proactive)
FINAL Reactive
In response to citizen requests.
General crime control
Directed at the community at large, not any particular crime.
Eg. Routine preventative patrol
Specific Crime Conrol
Directed at particular crimes, places, offenders or victims
What is the primary crime prevention activity of the police?
Routine patrol
FINAL How many total officer assigned to specialized crime prevention?
3 percent
Second major crime-fighting responsibility of the police is?
To apprehend criminals
Who are the real “gate keepers” in the criminal justice system?
Citizens are the real gate keepers, patrol officers rarely discover crimes in progress
Unfounding a crime
When officers don’t complete a crime report
Reasons for unfounding a crime?
- ) Citizens don’t understand criminal law
- Eg. in Chicago 58% of calls to police were reported as a crime by citizens, but only 17% was considered a crime by the police - ) Insufficient evidence
- ) Officers may abuse their discretion (eg. could be to bias towards the victim)
Myths about detective work?
- Created by movies, create unreasonable public expectations about the ability of the police to control crime.
Detective work
- located in separate unit
- considered high-status work
- Offers great opportunity
- plain clothes, frees them from stereotypes
- *Benefit: able to wear plain clothes**
Preliminary investigation – 5 steps
- Identify and arrest suspects
- aid victims
- secure crime scene
- collect evidence
- prepare prelim report
Donald Black
His study talked about a suspect’s demeanor has an influences the probability of a suspect getting arrested.
Reality of detective work?
- Not exciting
- routine and nonproductive
- worked on only 30% of all residential burglaries and 18% larcenies
- most cases receive one day or less work
- most of their work involves paperwork
Case screening?
- Detectives screen cases to see how much effort to put into a case
- Depends on the seriousness of crime and evidence
- Some police agencies base it on “case solvability factors”
PERF?
Police Executive Research Forum
PERF divided follow-up in 3 categories?
Routine, Secondary and Tertiary
- Routine: interviewing victim and checking crime scene
- Secondary: interviewing others, collect evidence
- Tertiary: discussing case with other officers, interviewing suspects
FINAL NCIC?
National Crime Information Center
PERF found that detective’s caseload has three components:
- Nominal caseload: all cases assigned
- Workable caseload: Cases you actually work, have leads
- Actual caseload: Cases actually worked by detectives
Clearance Rate?
Traditional measure of success in criminal investigation
it is unreliable
National clearance rate?
Only 21% reported index crimes are cleared (1 in 5)
- Police can manipulate clearance rate
Defining an arrest four types?
Legally arrested
Behaviorally arrested
Subjectively arrested
Officially arrested
Legally arrested?
In custody, deprived of liberty
Behaviorally arrested?
When officer tells someone to stop, verbally telling person under arrest or physically restraining them
Subjective arrested?
When they feel not free to go
Officially arrested?
When police make official arrest
3 case solvability factors?
- Case structural factors
- Organizational factors
- Environmental factors
Case structural factors?
Related to crime that was committed, presence or absence of a good lead
Organizational Factors?
Lack of resources does not keep clearance rate low
- different management, different training levels don’t effect clearance rates
Environmental Factors?
- Studied the least
- Characteristics of community
- Community size most important environmental factor
- Eg. in small community residents recognize more criminal behavior or suspects
Officer Productivity
- Some officers make more arrests
