CRIME PREVENTION 1

Crime Prevention

Student's Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Code & Name

Instructor's Name

Due Date
CRIME PREVENTION 2

Crime Prevention

In the realm of criminal justice, police patrol has been regarded as an effective way of

reducing crime in the United States over the past decades. However, studies have revealed that

the random patrols conducted always yield unexpected results that may not effectively combat

crime in the major crime hotspots (Worall, 2014). To improve the outcome of police patrols, the

chances of corruption should be reduced so that delinquency can be observed and punished.

Therefore, an active police patrol, a surveillance strategy that maintains law and order in all

crime hotspots, should be implemented. Even though various crime hotspots exhibit different

crime patterns, police officers should make sure that they conduct efficient strategies to combat

crimes (Worrall, 2014). Furthermore, police discretion should be practiced by all patrol officers

for effective results to be realized. This paper focuses on how effective police patrol and

discretion can help in effectively protecting communities and reducing crime rates in the United

States.

Characteristics of Urban Crime

Urban crime affects approximately every city across the world. There are various

characteristics of urban crime that must be understood so that the prevention strategies might be

effective. Firstly, besides terrorist activities, typically, most urban criminals do not plan their

crimes well. These criminals seek chances in executing their activities, and when they occur,

they strike without having a second thought. The state can only help by having police officers

designated in various areas and doing certain jobs to prevent crime. Therefore, staffing of police

within various areas is a crucial act since it might reduce crime rates. In addition, police

departments should be keen when conducting patrol allocations as this might greatly impact the

community's safety.
CRIME PREVENTION 3

Tactics

Individual or serial crimes only happen when offenders come into conduct with their

potential targets in the absence of any qualified supervision. Therefore, having the best tactics

incorporated in police patrols help in reducing possible crimes from occurring. There are three

main tactics that the police may employ when carrying out their patrols. The apprehension tactic

works best when there is an opportunity of detecting and arresting offenders. This tactic can only

be possible if police use informants, silent alarms, and surveillance cameras (Corsaro, 2018).

Police officers might also make use of the suppression tactic, which involves scaring offenders

without arresting them. The tactic is common only when crimes are minor, and there is little

information on the offenders or officers who do not know the criminal's next move. Officers

usually make directed patrols, random checkpoints and use dogs to scare away would-be

criminals (Miranda, 2020). Lastly, police may employ the hardening tactic to focus on

monitoring the target rather than the criminals. The police officers get involved by using

neighborhood watches and any alarms and warning signs available.

Patrolling Experiences

When police patrols began in the 1800s, they were normally conducted by foot, but with

advancements in technology and criminals becoming smarter, patrol methods and tactics have

changed over time. In the 21st century, various patrol methods are used in an attempt to contain

and reduce crime. The police department of Kansas conducted a good example of a patrol

experiment. A one-year patrol experiment was organized by the Missouri Police Department

between October 1972 and September 1973 (Hansen et al., 2021). The experiment aimed to

determine whether police presence in public could deter and reduce crime in the state. The police

were divided into three groups, reactive, control, and proactive group. The reactive group of
CRIME PREVENTION 4

police only appeared when there was a call of service and thus never conducted normal patrols.

The control group was left to carry out the normal day-to-day operations. They responded to

calls for service, carried out foot and vehicle patrols. Finally, in the proactive group, the number

of police officers was increased by twice or thrice the usual one (Hansen et al., 2021). At the end

of the experiment, it was noted that there was no substantial impact on the crime rates within the

communities was felt.

Effective Patrol Methods

Various aspects must be taken into consideration for effective police patrol methods to be

realized. While ensuring the community's safety, police officers must deter, prevent any crimes

and respond to distress calls from the public. Many parts are intertwined to ensure that societies

remain safe. When all the parts work in collaboration, community policing boosts the results of

police officers as more recruits from the community take this as their career. Therefore, police

officers will always have valid and reliable information regarding criminal activities in the

communities. In the case of the Crisis Intervention Team and de-escalation, all police officers in

the department should coordinate effectively to make sure intervention missions are executed in

time and the right manner. Early intervention and response to individual distress calls can

effectively solve issues before becoming the nation’s center of attention. With the right data and

information, the trustworthiness and performance of police officers within their communities can

improve.

In the Missouri Police Department case, readers would be obliged to think that the

experiment brought the best police patrol method to light. Increasing the presence of police

officers among the public might be viewed as a way of improving safety. For instance, if an over

speeding individual spots a police vehicle in the distance, the probability of that person slowing
CRIME PREVENTION 5

down is approximately 90 percent. However, increasing the volume of police officers in an area

might have negative impacts too. In this regard, the best patrolling method can only be achieved

by bringing all parts of police departments to work in collaboration in combating crime.

In the 21st century, one of the major technological advancements that police departments

have seen is in information and data collection. This is due to all the developed technologies

existing in the modern world; facial recognition tools, license plate readers, social media, and

cameras on buildings, street poles, and police officers (Nowacki et al., 2018). At the same time,

criminals are constantly improving g their methods of execution and are quick adopters of

technology. Currently, incidents are going from local to national in a matter of seconds. In

addition, demographic and technological shifts are changing where, who, what, and how law

enforcement work is done. Dramatic and rapid changes are touching all the aspects within the

ecosystem that law enforcement operates. However, having all these data and information

systems does not mean that crime in the communities reduces. On the contrary, if only this data

could be put to good use by law enforcement officers, there would be a positive change within

communities in terms of crime.

Police departments should emphasize having positive police discretion within their

officers. This is the ability of officers to make decisions based on what they believe is

appropriate in the current situation. If police officers can make judgments in certain situations,

crime rates will reduce in most cities. However, a police officer could misuse their discretion in

various ways. In the United States, racial profiling has been one of the key ways police discretion

is misused. For instance, in a group of three individuals walking in the street, two whites and one

black, a police officer's decision to only search the black man would be a misuse of his discretion

(Charbonneau, 2021). In my perspective, police discretion is a good thing that should be

CRIME PREVENTION 6

practiced across all states. Positive police discretion, such as efficient use of resources, good

judgment, sound public policy, and justice, can contribute to the advancement of security in the

community. In the modern world, police discretion is crucial as it can be used in profiling

innocent individuals. To control police discretion, police departments should enhance

professional judgment among their officers and put in place informal bureaucratic controls. The

criminal justice system should also review officers' behavior to ensure that the decisions and

actions they undertake are within the law (de Almeida, 2021). Officers should also consider the

administrative rulemaking, which determines what an officer must do in a certain situation, what

an officer cannot do in a situation and other issues that the officer must consider before acting.

In this paper, I have discussed the role of police patrols in ensuring the safety and

reduction of crimes in communities. The various tactics that the police should employ to make

their patrols effective have also been highlighted. However, this paper does not touch on all the

efforts being developed to make the police force more effective as the field is constantly

changing and growing. All law enforcement agencies must keep up with modern technological

advancements to keep their communities safe.

CRIME PREVENTION 7

References

Charbonneau, A., & Glaser, J. (2021). Suspicion and Discretion in Policing: How Laws and

Policies Contribute to Inequity. UC Irvine Law Review, 11(5), 1327.

de Almeida, F. E. G. (2021). POLICE DISCRETION AND PROCEDURAL JUSTICE. Revista

Do Instituto Brasileiro De Segurança Pública (RIBSP)-ISSN 2595-2153, 4(8), 78-88.

Hansen, A., & Arrowood, T. (2021). Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment. The

Encyclopedia of Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1, 264-265.

Miranda, M. (2020). Silencing, a Tool of Suppression and Survival.

Nowacki, J. S., & Willits, D. (2018). Adoption of body cameras by United States police

agencies: An organizational analysis. Policing and Society, 28(7), 841-853.

Worrall, J. L. (2014). Crime control in America: What works?. Pearson Higher Ed.

Zhang, C., Gholami, S., Kar, D., Sinha, A., Jain, M., Goyal, R., & Tambe, M. (2016). Keeping

pace with criminals: A comprehensive study of designing patrol allocation against

adaptive opportunistic criminals. Games, 7(3), 15.