Focusing police resources and patrol on high‐crime “hot spots”
The effectiveness of crime prevention can be optimized when police activities and resources are shifted to a small geographic micro-unit. Policing strategy for hot sports is focused on small geographic areas characterized by a high concentration of crimes, usually within urban settings. As noted by Braga et al (2019), the strategy is intended to reduce the rate of crime without any displacement. However, the legitimacy perceptions which are essential for democratic policing and closely linked to public compliance with the law could be adversely affected by aggressive tactics for hot sports. The report proposes policy interventions that will be focused on intensifying patrols and directing resources on crime hot spots within the state of New Jersey. Specifically, the paper discusses the implementation of the policy and delineates the significance of proposed intervention, evaluation of the policy intervention, and effects on the police culture. Consistent with a strong evidence base, hot spot policing strategy leads to a significant decline in the rates of crime in targeted areas.
Policy Implementation
The implementation of place-based policing can take a range of approaches across interventions. The implementation will employ a problem-oriented approach involving a three-step program: identify and analyze hot sports problems, develop customized responses using patrols and police resources, and maintain gains of crime control. The Sara model will be followed to guide the program and its evaluation. The main problems identified in hot sports include assault, property crimes, street fights, robbery incidences, and narcotics crimes. Each hot spot will be well defined using street segments based on adjoining intersections. Official data sources will be analyzed to and discussed with members of the community to determine the extent of violent crimes in the area to inform the development of relevant policy responses for the problems (Lazzati, & Menichini, 2016). For the treatment areas, a variety of strategies of order maintenance and crime deterring interventions are implemented. Some of these strategies include intensified patrol and police presence in the target hot spots, disruption of situational dynamics that known to foster the occurrence of crime such as cleaning up the graffiti and razing down abandoned buildings, and increasing misdemeanor arrests, increase search and seizures for guns, and intensifying crackdown on drug peddling.
Importance of policy Intervention
The policy intervention will be effective in reducing violent crimes such as assault, property crimes, street fights, robbery incidences, and narcotics crimes in hot spots. About half of criminal incidences are concentrated in hot spots and implementing hot spot policing in these areas will reduce the overall crime rate in New Jersey (Lazzati, & Menichini, 2016). Besides, discussion with members of the community will also improve their relationships with the police. The second benefit relates to the sound working relationship between community members and the police department.
Policy Evaluation
The proposed policy intervention for deterring violent crime in the state of New Jersey will involve hot spots subjected to the intervention. The evaluation of the intervention will be based on the monthly statistics on the number of violent incidents committed in the selected hot spots after the start of the intervention (Engelbrecht, Lukosch, & Datcu, 2019). A significant decline in the rate of violent crimes in these spots is an indication of successful policy intervention. Statistics in the targeted places will be compared to non-targeted hotspots to evaluate the success of policy intervention.
Impact on Police Culture
A shift in the police culture is expected through hotspots policy intervention. Currently, the police department and community do not enjoy a smooth working relationship. As noticed earlier, analysis of official data on crime rates will involve a discussion with members of the community to inform the development of better relevant police responses for the problems for the community (Braga, Turchan, Papachristos, & Hureau, 2019). Therefore, it is expected that intensified police-community interaction will generate a smooth working relationship between the police and members of the community. We also expect the department of police to shift their culture to using community outreach programs to help them in preventing crimes and making arrests. The culture shift will entail seeing the public as important players in crime prevention through information sharing on crimes within the community rather than suspects.
Conclusion
The policy proposal has discussed hot spot policing intervention for reducing the rate of crime through patrols and resources within the state of New Jersey. The implementation will employ a problem-oriented approach involving a three-step program: identify and analyze hot sports problems, develop customized responses using patrols and police resources, and maintain gains of crime control. A variety of strategies including order maintenance and crime deterring interventions will be executed in each treatment area. The evaluation of the intervention will be based on the monthly statistics on the number of violent incidents committed in the selected hot spots after the start of the intervention. Most importantly, the policy intervention would result in a culture shift within the police department toward the community outreach programs.
References
Braga, A. A., Turchan, B. S., Papachristos, A. V., & Hureau, D. M. (2019). Hot spots policing and crime reduction: an update of an ongoing systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of experimental criminology, 15(3), 289-311.
Braga, A. A., Turchan, B., Papachristos, A. V., & Hureau, D. M. (2019). Hot spots policing of small geographic areas effects on crime. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 15(3), e1046.
Engelbrecht, H., Lukosch, S. G., & Datcu, D. (2019). Evaluating the Impact of Technology Assisted Hotspot Policing on Situational Awareness and Task-Load. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 3(1), 1-18.
Lazzati, N., & Menichini, A. A. (2016). Hot Spot Policing: A Study of Place‐Based Strategies for Crime Prevention. Southern Economic Journal, 82(3), 893-913.