The Police in America Walker Katz Flashcards
Exam 2:
Prevent crime before it occurs
categories/functions of the police role that relates to crime prevention.
Responding to citizen reports of crime and investigating crimes
categories/functions of the police role that relates to crime prevention
Apprehending offenders
categories/functions of the police role that relates to crime prevention
Activities taken to prevent crime before it occurs.
Proactive crime control
Activities such as responding to calls for service and investigative crimes.
Reactive crime control
- Preventing crime
2. Apprend criminals
Police responsibility to control crime
Patrol
Formal crime prevention efforts
Taking proactive steps to prevent crime
Preventing crime
focus on certain areas/problems to reduce crime or even things like giving out steering wheel locks to fight auto theft.
Target hardening
The police officer responds to the call and does not file an official report.
Unfounding crime
Why would a cop unfound a crime (discretion) ?
Citizens may not understand the law and many times there was no criminal law violation. Police don’t deal with civil violations
focus on law enforcement and targeting the supply of illegal drugs
supply reduction
undercover officers buy drugs and the arrest the dealer
buy and bust stategy
Drug crimes are ambiguous in regards to how to deal with them
no answer
as it’s a lucrative business in inner city areas, new dealers tend to quickly replace those who are arrested.
replacement effect
take the opposite approach and focus of reducing demand for drugs
demand reduction strategies
Increasing gang crime through the 80s and 90s posed new challenges.
gang related crime
many departments have gang units that focus on gang-related crime. Many areas have partnerships with police and prosecutors to be tough on gang crime.
law enforcement crackdowns
juvenile firearm homicedes were a growing problem in Boston in the late 80s to early 90s
The Boston Gun Project
involved a task force of police, prosecutors, researchers and community groups that dealt with gang problem in the following way…
pulling levers
the task force called gang members and advised that violence would not be tolerated or that they would throw the book at them.
pulling levers
they also gave gang members access to education, training programs, etc. to get their lives on track.
pulling levers
other projects focused on working with at risk youth to prevent them from becoming involved with gangs.
gang prevention efforts
GREAT-9 week class for middle school students led by a uniformed police officer.
Gang Resistance Education and Training
Professional model assumptions
- police could deter crime by randomly patrolling the entire city in police cars.
- Such patrols make residents feel safer.
no preventative patrol. Police only entered these areas in response to calls for service
Reactive beats
these received 2-3 times more than normal levels of random patrol.
Proactive beats
received their normal level of preventive patrol.
Control beats
Reactive beats, proactive beats and control beats found no significant differences across the three types of beats in terms of
crime, fear of crime, opinions of the police, police response time.
Adding police officers add to the number of crimes in an area. Increases crime rates
more officers patrolling at the same time
more resources for investigations, special units
victim discovers the crime sometime after its commission. Never directly confronts the offender
Discovery crime
victim was directly confronted by the offender
involvement crimes
found that how quickly police arrived on the scene had no impact on their chances of arresting someone and solving the crime.
Spelman and Brown
75% of crimes calls for service in their study were discovery crimes.
Getting to the scene fast doesn’t matter in such cases.
2.9 % of calls for serious crimes results in an on scene arrest.
people delay before calling the cops in involvement crimes and the offender is thus long gone.
How long they take to call the cops is what matters.
Citizens must report an involvement crime within 1-2 minutes to really improve the chances of capturing the offender.
investigative training, staffing, workload, procedures ….
had no appreciable effect on crime, arrest or clearance rates.
80 % of all arrest are made by patrol officers.
perp is arrested at the scene
victim/witness identified perp by name and/or address
perp identifiable by unique evidence at the scene
Professional Era/Standard model
Preventative patrol-doesn’t work
Adding more police-doesn’t work
Rapid Response - doesn’t work
Changes to investigations- doesn’t work
“The police do not prevent crime. This is one of the best kept secrets of modern life. Experts know it. Yet the police pretend that they are society’s best defence against crime…This is a myth.
Bayley, 1994
5 Reasons for spread of community-oriented policing
- times were ripe for change.
- police spent little time on law enforcement
- experts recognize importance of community
- The federal govt provided funds to implement COP
- it was a way to change goals from fighting crime to other goals.
a paradigm of policing-a new idea about how to do policing, how police agencies should be organized, what the goal of the police should be etc.
community policing
a model of policing that stresses a two-way working relationship between the community and the police. -with the police becoming more integrated into local community and citizens assuming an active role in crime control and prevention.
community policing
4 elements that emerged when COP is implemented
- community based crime control
- proactive service
- public participation in planning and supervision
- shifting of command responsibilities to lower levels
a) community partnership
b) organizational change
c) problem solving
3 targets of COP reform
police aim to improve their work by consulting the community. Allows police and community to communicate in an open forum.
consultation
police realize their limitations and mobilize the community to help them deal with problems. Neighborhood watch.
mobilization
use more than just arrest/law enforcement to solve problems and fight crime and disorder.
widening the police “toolbox”
COP might not work in every neighborhood
people may not trust the police
social controls have failed there already
middle class neighborhoods
Organizational change is the second target of COP. What are the 4 d’s
- Decentralization
- Deformaliz
- Delayerize
- Despecialization
- to stimulate and encourage officers to perform COP functions
- To make police agencies are flexible and amenable to forming community partnerships, solving problems.
Organizational changes are needed for two main reasons.
Decentralize
Delayerize (fewer levels of management)
Despecialize (less specialization)
Deformalize (more discretion for line officers
Organizational structure
Give patrol officers more input
provide more recognition for community efforts, problem solving etc.
Organizational culture
Police management under COP are expected to do more than just keep their officers in line. Hard to find time to be active in COP.
Management
Police organizations are not really changing.
No proof that COP works
Fear and improved opinions of the police
No answer
CAPS
Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy
- lake of resources
- police opposition to closing same precint stations and moving having more, smaller stations around the city
- Rank and file officers were not committed
COP would work better or may be better ….
if departments actually enforced it.
first formally developed problem-oriented policing. (POP).
Herman Goldstein in 1979
Goldstein suggested that police should be ____ and solve problems that lead to crime, rather than be ______.
proactive, reactive
POP works effectively police must
- Define problems very specifically
- Police just can’t identify crime ploblem by problem basis
- They must explore alternative responses to the problem.
Eck and Spelman’s POP was formalized and found that…
positive impacts of POP
created a model for how to do POP in other cities
Agency should change to become fully problem solving agency
A fully problem solving agency
Problem solving is the standard method used
Efforts focus on problems of the public
Police establish precise, measurable objectives
Mangers look for ways to get member involved
The SARA Model of POP
S(canning)-using crime data to identify probs.
A(nalysis)-gather more data and figure out why
R(esponse)-carryout the solution to the prob.
A(ssessment)-gather data and examine results
What Eck calls some POPs that are not fully engaged.
shallow problem solving
problems identified primarily through
crime data and crime maps
POP is one of the most promising innovative police strategies
but there aren’t many high quality studies of POP so we’re not sure of an impact it has on crime and disorder.
small areas that have a lot of crime
hot spots.
Hot spots are often just a block or two -or even a single address—in a bad neighborhood that is generating most of the crime calls.
no answer
Was hot spots policing accepted? Why?
Yes, because it was easier to implement than cop AND pOP. They can continue to use standard model.
made hot spots policing possible
computerized crime maps.
Hinkle and Weisburd (2008) found that
a police crackdown or disorder in hot spots increased fear of crime among residents.
some believe that hot spots tactic doesn’t prevent crime, ….
it just moves it.
focus crime in an area, and crime will simply move elsewhere to areas not being heavily targeted
crime displacement
crime may also go down in nearby areas that are not receiving an extra police presence or other crime prevention efforts
diffusion of crime control benefits
Prostitutes are okay with displacement because…
they don’t mind relocating for money and to keep from being detected.
another new police strategy that started in the NYPD in the 1990s
COMPSTAT
Focused on computer statistics . Have meetings where they review crime stats.
compstat
6 elements of compstat
- mission clarification
- internal accountability
- geographic organization
- organizational flexibility
- data driven problem identification and assessment
- innovative problem solving
mission clarification
didn’t find widespread commitment among officer to the central mission.
internal accountability
effective in giving supervisors more control
geographic organization of operational command
modest changes-again decision making just moved down to middle management.
organizational flexibility
hasn’t really happened.
focus on accountability leads to competition for resources between resources between districts.
data driven problem identification and asessment
COMPSTAT has significantly improved the
innovative problem solving tactics
still tend to rely on traditional law enforcement to fig crime problems.
Effective tactic
Target small locations rather than individuals or larger geographic areas.
Take a focused approach (deal with specific problems) rather than general apporach.
effective tactic
Are highly proactive
fight crime before it occus.
