Managing Police Patrol Time: The Role of Supervisor Directives (original) (raw)

What Do We Really Know About Police Patrol?: A Systematic Review of Routine Police Patrol Research

2020

Purpose: Research on routine police patrol has experienced little attention in criminology for the past four decades. Despite the fact that little is known about this mode of policing, a consensus seems to prevail regarding its ineffectiveness for crime deterrence and crime prevention. To emphasize this gap of research, this study systematically reviews existing literature on routine police patrol. Methods: A systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines of scientific studies (n=4) was conducted. Evidence was synthesized quantitatively (e.g., tabular) and qualitatively (e.g., narrative argumentation). Results: The synthesized results provide no ground for the diagnosed ineffectiveness of routine police patrol, that seems to be believed throughout criminological studies. Despite the outdated character of the majority of reviewed studies, results show inconsistencies and fail to clearly establish positive or negative quantitative crime deterrent effects. Conclusion: Contemporary research does not adequately understand the effects of routine police patrol and builds leading police research on a limited number of methodically flawed studies from the mid 1970's. Future research should establish the effectiveness of this mode of policing and optimal spatial allocation of police officers following a sound methodological framework.

Can You Build a Better Cop? Experimental Evidence on Supervision, Training, and Policing in the Community

2016

Police officers who are actively engaged with the public can reduce crime through general deterrence and by arresting criminals. At the same time, excessive arrests and the use of force by officers can reduce public trust in the integrity of the police. To date, there is scant evidence as to how police departments can successfully train officers to balance these two goals in the field. Drawing on psychology and economics, we developed a low-cost, on-the-job training program intended to encourage officers to “slow down” their thought process during citizen encounters and engage in behaviors consistent with procedural justice. After randomly assigning a select group of officers to training, we find that those who participated in training were as engaged in the community as similarly situated officers, but were less likely to resolve incidents with an arrest and were less likely to be involved in incidents where force was used. These changes were most evident among officers who worked ...

A Descriptive Survey of American Policing

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines police as a body of officers that represent the authority of government. The functions performed by police officers are known as policing. Some of the functions include enforcing the law, maintaining public order and safety, preventing and detecting crimes. This paper is a descriptive and assessment survey of American policing. It is an attempt to contribute to scholarship in the areas of the history of policing in America and in the areas of assessing the impacts of policing on the American communities.

The Shift Length Experiment: What We Know About 8-, 10-, and 12-Hour Shifts in Policing

The Police Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting innovation and improvement in policing. Established in 1970, the foundation has conducted seminal research in police behavior, policy, and procedure, and works to transfer to local agencies the best new information about practices for dealing effectively with a range of important police operational and administrative concerns. Motivating all of the foundation's efforts is the goal of efficient, humane policing that operates within the framework of democratic principles and the highest ideals of the nation.

Police Accountability and Early Warning Systems: Developing Policies and Programs

Justice Research and Policy, 2000

The identification of police officers who have potential problems has emerged as a popular approach for curbing police misconduct and achieving accountability. Early warning (EW) systems are data-driven programs whose purpose is to identify officers whose behavior is problematic and to subject those officers to some kind of intervention, often in the form of counseling or training. Because of their potential for providing timely data on officer performance and giving police managers a framework for correcting unacceptable performance, early warning systems are consistent with the new demands for performance evaluation raised by community policing and the effective strategic management of police departments. This article identifies essential components of EW systems and explains the characteristics, structure, and processes of a model program.

An Examination of Police Officers' Insights Into Problem Identification and Problem Solving

Crime & Delinquency, 2005

Problem solving begins with problem identification. Conventional knowledge suggests that because patrol officers work specific geographical areas (beats) on a fairly constant basis, they come to see where the problems exist; thus, police experience alone can be relied on to identify crime problems. However, few have examined whether officers are effective in identifying problems in their areas. This research examined the consistency of officer problem identification across focus groups for an entire police department in terms of the kinds of problems identified, the location of problems, and the suggested responses. Although there was little consistency across focus groups, officers were able to identify specific sites or properties thought to generate high levels of disorder-related calls. Solutions to crime problems tended to involve increased police presence for complex problems affecting areas and crime prevention for specific sites facing single-crime problems.

A National Activity Survey of Police Work

The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 2009

The study comprises a national activity survey of the distribution of time spent on various policing tasks among a sample oJ over 1,600 communio constables and general duty oflcers. The results of the survey show that about one-third of a typical tour of d u o of community constables and about two-JfthJ of the typical d u o lour of general duty ofJcers is spent inside the station. When inside the station the major proportion oftheir time is spent on general administrative duties including paperwork and when outside the station the major proportion of their time is spent on routinebatrol. A comparative analysis of activities across all ,forces shows considerable variation in the amount of time uniform ofJicers spend on various tasks. A n important dijjference among force3 whose ofjcers spend a large amount of time outside the station and forces whose ofJicers spend a small amount of time outside the police station is thr amount of time spent on general administralive duties including paperwork. The paper concludes that activity analyses can identif problems in the organisation and deployment of patrol oflcers and notes plans by HMIC and the Home O f f e to produce a standard activity sampling package and to encourage forces to use it.