Resesrch Paper on Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment

In 1972 and 1973 the Kansas Police Department engaged in an experiment to examine the effectiveness of police patrols with regard to prevention and control of crime (Kelling, Pate, Dieckman, Brown, 2003). The experiment aimed at examining the effectiveness of police presence in marked vehicles with regard to prevention and control of criminal activities in the city. The experiment sought to understand the crime incidence based on the increase in police patrol and the response of the public. The experiment helped to verify that actually, the presence of police of in the communities did neither help to deter criminal activities nor make the public feel more secure. In the experiment, the police used three controlled levels dividing the police into various groups to focus on their area of control and collect the data on the behavior of the public and the crime incidence (Kelling et al., 2003). In the first area, the police used a reactive strategy where patrols were reduced to the level where the police only responded when there was a call from the public. In the second strategy, the police increased patrol to two or three times. In the third level, the police maintain the normal level of patrol.

Describe the 13 major findings.

The experiment helped to identify new policing styles that can be used to deter criminal activities in the community.

Members of the community did not realize a change in the patrols of the police in the city

Because of the inability to notice the changes in patrols, the Kansas Police department noted increasing or decrease robber, including burglaries, home theft, vandalism among other criminal activities (Kelling, Pate, Dieckman, Brown, 2003).

The Report also discovered that the presence of police did not change the rate at which the public reported criminal activities.

The citizens did not feel much change in the number of criminal activities influenced by increase or decrease in patrols.

The satisfaction of the citizens did appear very different with the change in patrol activities.

The patrol experiment helped to realize that effective policing and crime reporting is based on the willingness of the public engage with the police.

The experiment was an eye opener on the need to adopt new policing styles that are likely to focus more on working in collaboration with the societies.

From the experiment, it was clear that reducing patrol from a community showed a positive change in reduction in crime and the public also felt safer.

Unexpectedly, the area where the patrol was increased by twice or thrice, the public felt less safe and the crime continued to increase.

Although the finding showed that increase in police patrol does not have an impact on the crime incidence, it does not also prove that reduction of patrol leads to the reduction in crime.

Another finding of the experiment also showed that the feeling of safety of the public is not based on the presences of police in the community.

Rather than spending excess resources on patrol, the study showed that noncommittal patrol is more effective as compared to routine patrol.

Prior to the study, patrol officers had reservations about participating in the study; what were these reservations? Were the reservations reasonable?

The patrol officers had reservation about the experiment because they thought it was not a good way to examine utilization of resources in the police department. The police offices were also used to making patrols in the city, therefore making them rigid to new changes in the operations (Kelling, Pate, Dieckman, Brown, 2003).

Describe how the results were measured.

The results of the experiment were measured on two main aspects, the response of the public and the incidence of crime due to the change in police patrol. The results in the two areas, in which the patrols were adjusted, were compared to the area where the patrol was maintained (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2016).

For administrators, what does this study tell them about uncommitted patrol time?

For administrators, the study shows that when patrol in a given area is uncommitted, the public feels safer as compared to a place where patrol has been beefed up. This shows, rather than wasting resources on increasing patrols in the community, the police department should make patrolling as a non-committed task rather than a daily routine of the police (Kelling, Pate, Dieckman, Brown, 2003). The study showed that the deployment of police should target to accomplish a given goals rather than daily preventive measures.

What measures or actions were taken by the researchers and police department so crime did not significantly spike during the experiment?

The experiment was a rigorous exercise which required precaution to prevent escalation of crime in the areas that were scheduled for the experiment. In preparation to counter any lurking danger during the experiment, the police subdivided itself into various groups and tasked with various roles including patrolling data collection and maintenance of the normal police security in the areas (Lum, Koper & Willis, 2017).

What did the results of this study imply to other law enforcement agencies who might want to participate in future experiments or research?

The study of Kansas City helped to lay a foundation on the impact of patrol in crime prevention. The results of the experiment showed that Law enforcement agencies seeking to engage in future research should focus on examining the resources allocation and the implication in the control of criminal activities in the society (Kelling, et al., 2003).

Lastly, provide a summary of the information you learned from this exercise. Additionally, assume the role of a police planner and describe how you would manage your resources to prevent and/or reduce crime.

From the Kansa City Preventative Patrol Experiment, I have learned that resources allocation in the police department should be keen evaluated to avoid using the excess resource with minimal results. I have learned that the number of patrols in a given city does not lead much significance in with regard to the control and prevention of criminal activities. This means the resources should be directed towards the right operations which will have empirical results to the police department (Kelling, et al., 2003). I have realized that increasing patrols without good relations with the members of the community will still not effectively address the crime problems in the society.

As police planner, I will not put much focus on patrols because I have learned the strategy is not adequately effective in reducing crime in the society. To reduce waste of resources, I will turn to embracing community policing as a strategy to enhance community involvement in the prevention and controls in the communities in the city. In my form of management, I can invest more in establishing strong relationships with the members of the public to make them feel at ease to engage with the police in addressing criminal problems in the society. According to Leibold, Mengistu & Pindur (2015), community policing is a style that gives the members of the public an opportunity to participate in policing. Because they have lived in the community for a long time, community members understanding better, therefore, more likely engage with the policy in bringing an ineffective solution to crime problem rather than making aimless patrols.

References

Kelling, G. Pate, T. Dieckman, D., Brown, C. (2003). The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment. Police Foundation Washington, DC. Retrieved January 25, 2018, from https://www.policefoundation.org/publication/the-kansas-city-preventive-patrol-experiment/

Leibold, M., Mengistu, B., & Pindur, W. (2015). Community Policing in a Multicultural Community Environment: Marketing Issues for a Police Service, with Specific Reference to South Africa. In Proceedings of the 1998 Multicultural Marketing Conference (pp. 211-215). Springer, Cham.

Lum, C., Koper, C. S., & Willis, J. (2017). Understanding the Limits of Technologys Impact on Police Effectiveness. Police Quarterly, 20(2), 135-163.

Mukhopadhyay, A., Zhang, C., Vorobeychik, Y., Tambe, M., Pence, K., & Speer, P. (2016, November). Optimal allocation of police patrol resources using a continuous-time crime model. In International Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security (pp. 139-158). Springer International Publishing.