Preventive Patrol Strategies: The Kansas City Experiment
Introduction
Preventive patrol is the application of a strategy to prevent crime and maintain order on the streets. This action involves police officers patrolling specific areas and at designated times. This article reviews the preventive patrol and the preventive patrol experiment in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1972 to 1973, and its results.
Discussion
Preventive patrol is a police-implemented crime prevention tactic that involves actively patrolling the streets to deter crime. For preventive patrol, police officers move to places where crime has previously been detected and react strongly to any signs of a crime. The concept of preventive patrol aims to deter crime and maintain a general sense of security among the city’s inhabitants.
One of the first official preventive patrol experiments was conducted in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1972 to 1973 (Dewinter et al., 2020). The project involved patrolling certain areas with an increased number of police officers compared to other areas. Areas with a proportionate number of police officers were selected as control areas. Police officers in the patrolled areas carried out constant traffic control, checked vehicles for violations, and took active steps to prevent crime.
The purpose of the experiment was to study how proper patrol planning can reduce crime. The local police department divided the city into two parts and patrolled both areas for a period of two years. In one instance, the police patrolled according to plan, and in the other, they did so unscheduled. At the end of the study, it was demonstrated that scheduled patrols yielded significantly better results than ad hoc patrols (McGuire et al., 2021). On the planned side, crime decreased by almost 23-25%, and on the unplanned side, by only a few percentage points.
The study found that preventive patrolling resulted in a reduction in crime in patrolled areas compared to control areas. The data showed that proactive patrolling resulted in a reduction in car theft, robbery, and vehicle theft in patrolled areas. More importantly, proactive patrolling has led to a reduction in crime that extends beyond the directly monitored areas to the entire city. This is confirmed by the fact that, after the experiment ended in 1973, the crime rate in Kansas City remained below the level recorded in 1970 (McGuire et al., 2021). Ultimately, the study demonstrated that preventive patrols can result in a sustained reduction in crime in the city.
Even after more than thirty years, these findings remain relevant to police today (Dewinter et al., 2020). These days, many police departments apply the principles of scheduled patrols to reduce crime in the area. Such principles include patrolling at certain times and in certain areas. The principle of “Hotspot” patrols can also give good results. This principle encompasses patrolling high-crime areas, as well as other crime reduction activities, including educational and cultural initiatives. The preventive patrol strategy continues to prove effective in crime prevention.
Conclusion
Preventive patrol is an effective and affordable crime prevention strategy. The Kansas City, Missouri, 1972-1973 preventive patrol experiment showed that patrol can lead to a long-term reduction in crime, and the relevance of its results to today’s police is confirmed. Police departments continue to employ a preventive patrol strategy, as well as “Hotspot” patrols for proactive crime prevention. Local police departments are required to adopt scheduled patrol practices and the “Hot Spot” principle to reduce crime in the area. Additionally, other activities, such as educational and cultural events, can also help reduce crime. Consequently, the study of preventive patrols in Kansas City remains relevant to this day for police worldwide.
References
Dewinter, M., Vandeviver, C., Vander Beken, T., & Witlox, F. (2020). Analysing the police patrol routing problem: a review. Isprs international journal of geo-information, 9(3), 157. Web.
McGuire, J., Evans, E., & Kane, E. (2021). Evidence-based policing and community crime prevention. New York, NY: Springer. Web.