Learn about preventive policing and preventive patrols. Read a detailed definition of preventive patrols, learn their objectives, and read about their effectiveness.
Preventive Patrol Definition, Objectives & Effectiveness
Table of Contents
- Preventive Policing
- Preventive Patrol Definition
- The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment
- Preventive Patrols Versus Community Policing
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
Is preventive patrolling effective?
There are some who believe that preventative patrol is effective and that it is a great method to deter crime. There are others who think that it has little to no effect on crime rate. The Kansas City Preventative Control Experiment provided data that suggests preventative patrolling was ineffective.
What is an example of preventive patrol?
An example of preventative patrol is an officer routinely walking through a neighborhood each day. He or she may build relationships with the residents of the neighborhood and increase the community support and confidence in the police.
What is preventive patrolling?
Preventative patrolling occurs when a police force routinely patrols an area in an attempt to prevent crime from happening. They make themselves visible to the public and make it harder for crimes to be committed.
What is a proactive patrol?
Proactive patrol refers to the idea of stopping a crime before it occurs. This is something that police officers do to deter crime. It is the opposite of reactive patrol, which deals with a crime that has already been committed.
Table of Contents
- Preventive Policing
- Preventive Patrol Definition
- The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment
- Preventive Patrols Versus Community Policing
- Lesson Summary
Being a police officer isn't just about pulling people over or arresting criminals. Police departments have several roles that individuals on the force must do to make their communities safe. Police presence in a community can appear in ways such as routine traffic enforcement, police patrol, and involvement in community events. The definition of police presence is the visibility of police officers in public places, and it can help people in communities feel safer. Some of these roles involve doing welfare checks on citizens, helping disabled motorists, answering calls for help and other calls for service. In order to prevent crime, officers must remain visible in what is called preventive policing.
Preventive policing allows the community to see that police aren't just after criminals and to take people to jail. The purpose of preventive policing is to make people feel safe in their communities and to deter crime. Some police departments even support programs that involve officers teaching about drugs and alcohol prevention within the schools.
The definition of preventive patrol is when police actively patrol an area in an attempt to prevent crime from occurring. They may walk or drive through an area to keep a watch on the area and see if anything is happening. They will be seen by the people there, who will know that there is always a strong police presence. It is a preventive measure that helps deter crime because it seeks to identify potential problems before they occur so that they can be taken care of. It also helps that people know the police will be in the area because they have established a pattern of preventive policing. Since people know they're always on patrol, they will be less likely to commit a crime because they know they will be caught.
Preventive Patrol Objectives
A preventive patrol is a tool that many police forces use to deter crime. The main objectives of preventive patrols are:
- Deter crime: When the police are visible in an area, it helps to deter crime.
- Apprehend criminals: If the officers are already in an area they have more of a chance to catch criminals in that area. They have a quicker response time and have a better chance of finding the person who committed the crime.
- Take care of issues that are not crime-related: There are some issues that people want officers to take care of, for example- looking into a situation where no crime has been committed but there has been a disagreement. If officers are not in the area they may not have time to respond to a non-criminal situation because they have to think about response time and other things that are going on. If they are already in the neighborhood they can talk with residents and resolve issues before crimes may be committed.
- Give people a sense of security and confidence in the local police force: Having a visible police force makes typically makes people feel safer. They see the officers and feel a sense of protection. It can also give them confidence in the police as they see them working in their community.
- Recover stolen property: If the police are present in an area where property is being stolen it will be easier for them to recover it.
Effectiveness of Preventive Patrols
There has been much debate about the effectiveness of preventive patrols. Some think that it has little or no effect on lowering the crime rate in an area. Others believe that preventive patrols are necessary because they make crimes harder to commit. An experiment titled The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment suggests that there is not enough evidence to support the claim that preventive patrols are effective.
The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment was an experiment with the main objective being to test the effectiveness of preventive patrols. To test their theory, researchers divided the officers into three groups that would serve three different areas. The first group used proactive patrols by increasing the visibility of the officers in the area. The second group used reactive patrols, which focus on responding after a crime has occurred. The officers in this group did not patrol, but they did respond to calls for help. The third group did not change anything about the normal way of patrolling. They patrolled with the same frequency that the agency typically used.
Researchers used things like data reported from the agency on arrests and criminal activity, surveys from victims of crimes, and surveys from local businesses. They found that the people in the area did not notice a difference in police patrols and that it had no impact on how much crime was committed or how people thought about crime. Results of the Kansas City preventive patrol research project indicated that preventive patrols did not lower crime rates, did not help citizens feel safer, and did not increase trust in law enforcement.
Community policing refers to the act of officers working in neighborhoods to build relationships, identify issues, and solve problems. A primary focus of community policing is the transformation of the law enforcement image and agency. It has a lot in common with preventive patrolling.
- Both community policing and preventive patrols emphasize increased law enforcement visibility
- Both work to identify problems before they occur
- Both seek to increase the public confidence in police officers
- Both seek to deter crime
The main differences are that community policing transforms the way that the outside world sees the police force, giving them a new image. Also, community policing is more focused on relationship building as the officers serve and protect the community.
Police presence in a community can appear in ways such as routine traffic enforcement, police patrol, and involvement in community events. Preventive policing is used to help prevent crimes before they occur. The purpose of preventive policing is to make people feel safe in their communities and to deter crime. Preventive patrol is when police actively patrol an area in an attempt to prevent crime from occurring. The main objectives of preventive patrols are to deter crime, apprehend criminals, take care of issues that are not crime-related, give people a sense of security and confidence, and recover stolen property. There has been much debate about the effectiveness of preventive patrols. Some believe that preventive patrols are great for deterring crime and creating safer communities. The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment was an experiment with the main objective being to test the effectiveness of preventive patrols. Results of the Kansas City preventive patrol research project indicated that preventive patrols did not lower crime rates, did not help citizens feel safer, and did not increase trust in law enforcement.
Community policing refers to the act of officers working in neighborhoods to build relationships, identify issues, and solve problems. A primary focus of community policing is the transformation of the law enforcement image and agency.
Additional Info
What Is Preventive Patrol?
Imagine that a rash of home burglaries is taking place in your neighborhood. The majority of residents, including yourself, are very uneasy about the increase in crime and fear for the safety of their families. There is tremendous pressure on the local police department to take action. At the neighborhood watch meeting, the chief of police mentions instituting preventive patrols.
Preventive patrol is a term used in law enforcement for police patrols that are intended to deter crime by being proactive in nature. It is an attempt by law enforcement to eliminate opportunities for the commission of crimes.
Preventive Patrol Objectives
There are five primary objectives for preventive patrols:
- Deter the commission of crimes
- Apprehend criminal offenders
- Satisfy the public's demands for police presence
- Establish a positive relationship between police and citizens
- Locate and recover stolen property
Preventive patrols increase the visibility of a police presence. It is theorized that this presence would deter people from committing crimes while easing the fears of citizens who live in the targeted area. Going back to our earlier example, preventive patrols would be assumed to deter those who are burglarizing homes and therefore decrease the number of home burglaries while simultaneously allowing neighborhood residents to feel more secure.
Effectiveness of Preventive Patrols
The effectiveness of preventive patrol measures continues to be the topic of debate amongst community law enforcement agencies. While some argue they are effective, others cite a preventive patrol experiment conducted in Kansas City as evidence that they don't have the effectiveness some perceive.
The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment
The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment was an experiment conducted by the Kansas City Police Department in 1972 and 1973 with the intent of gauging the effectiveness of preventive patrols. The experiment involved 15 police beats, 5 of which were deemed reactive (only having a police presence when called upon), 5 of which were proactive (having a marked police presence), and 5 of which didn't change anything (control group). The experiment looked at the following questions:
- Would residents notice an increased police presence?
- Would more police presence affect the number of crimes?
- Would citizens feel more secure?
- Would the initiative increase satisfaction with law enforcement services?
The results of the experiment were rather surprising. Although it was speculated that this preventive patrol experiment would have positive results, the findings did not support this speculation. The findings included:
- Increased police presence had very little impact on the commission of crimes and the feeling of security for residents.
- Targeted police patrol practices were no more effective than preventive ones.
- Preventive patrols had no impact on increasing satisfaction with law enforcement services.
The findings of this research study indicate that preventive patrols don't have the impact that they are intended to have, particularly on crime rates and the perceived safety of citizens.
Preventive Patrols Versus Community Policing
Although preventive patrols incorporate the law enforcement visibility aspect of community policing, community policing is distinguished from preventive patrols in that the primary focus is on building collaborative partnerships with community organizations, centered on a problem solving approach, and with the end goal of transforming the law enforcement image and agency. While police visibility is an aspect of community policing, the emphasis is not just on visibility but on building positive relationships with residents in the community. Like preventive patrols, the emphasis remains on crime prevention, but community policing involves many additional components.
Lesson Summary
Preventive patrols are law enforcement efforts to increase police visibility and presence in a community in an effort to deter and decrease crimes, enhance the safety perception of citizens, apprehend offenders, increase perceived satisfaction with law enforcement services, and recover stolen property. While some perceive preventive patrols as effective, the Kansas City preventive patrol experiment results indicate that preventive patrol efforts have little impact on deterring crime, making citizens feel safe, or increasing satisfaction with law enforcement services.
It is important to distinguish between preventive patrols and community policing efforts. While both share the increase of a police presence to deter crime, community policing has a primary focus of building community partnerships, centers on a problem solving approach, and has a goal of transforming the law enforcement agency.
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