Hotspot policing

Introduction

A hot spot is a small geographical area where crime occurs often enough that its predictable. This
small, areas are known as micro units of geography. An officer should be able to stand in the center
of the hotspot and see most of it with their naked eye (Sherman and others, 1989) hotspot policing
involves increasing visible patrols this discourages offenders from taking advantage of opportunities
to commit crime. Strategies of place based (crime prevention) policing can be as simple as drastically
increasing officers time spent at hotspot. In a review (Braga ET AL 2019 a) subject suggested that the
extend evaluation research provides robust evidence that hotspot policing is an effective crime
prevention strategy(p289). The hotspot perspective suggests that police can reduce crime by
focusing their resources on the small number of places that generate most crime problems
(Sherman and Weisburd 1995. Eck and Weisburd 1995)

Project selection process

Human resource impact

 Hotspot policing can adopt A variety of strategies to control crime in problem areas including
order maintenance, Drug Enforcement crackdowns increase gun search and seizures and
zero crime tolerance. As the result of high crime in RIETPOORT the station commander has
implemented a strategic project to address the crime in RIETPOORT. The project will focus
on hotspot policing in which the commander has increased the number of patrol vehicles
and foot patrol officers in the identified areas. The impact that the increased manpower
should be able to achieve by policing hotspot is to reduce crime and educate the community
in terms of the times and days in which such crime occurs and build a relationship with the
community of that area.
 On the first day of the implementation of the project the vehicle that was posted at
RIETPOORD CBD one of the hotspots of illegal dealing in drugs one of the officers received
information that, there is an alleged suspect who is dealing in drugs known as KAGISO and is
residing at that area. Members liaised this information with other vehicles and patrollers and
an operation was launched in which the alleged suspect was arrested for illegal dealing in
drugs (Mandrax tablets) this suspect was arrested through increased patrols and the
communication between the police and the community.

Public reaction

 The community due to the arrest of a notorious drug dealer through the project are now
putting their trust and cooperation on the police and are also supporting this project of
hotspot policing. Community members have volunteered to join in on patrols and also
 pointing out houses and places that they know and also pointing out repeat offenders who
are back on crime. The commander on addressing the officers has encouraged the
involvement of the community by the police officers also included crime intelligence and
community forum for assisting in all the operations and the patrols that would be involved in
the project to reduce crime.
 Community meeting with the commander was held and all residents agreed with
cooperating with, the police on implementing crime prevention strategies to reduce crime.

Expected time frame.

 According to the crime patterns analysis crime occurs during the weekends and on holidays
and when its end of the month. In terms of patrols and lookouts the police have placed
specific times of the day to patrol and to increase vehicles on the area, the time to patrol will
be between 4:00 PM and 6:00 AM and, also on weekends to close all the illegal Shebeen and
maintain order.

Risk

Project cycle

Initiating phase

 This first phase of the project life cycle involves identifying a need, problem or opportunity
in this regard the SAPS and the community of RIETPOORT have identified an area in which
crime is often committed and such area must be addressed, strategists be put in place to
reduce crime from such area. The need for projects is often identified as part of an
organization’s (SAPS) strategic planning process projects are a means to implement
elements of specific strategies or actions. The district commander has given go ahead to the
station commander to have a project on implementing strategies to reduce crime. The
project charter has been documented, the charter includes-justification of the project,
completion date, project objectives and the expected benefits.
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