Page 18 - 1Proactive Policing

Pro-Active Policing

4. Establish a positive relationship between police and citizens
5. 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 Policing:

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 more police we have, the less crime there will be. While citizens and public officials often
espouse that view, social scientists often claim the opposite extreme: that police make only

minimal contributions to crime prevention in the context of far more powerful social institutions,
like the family and labor markets. The truth appears to lie in between. Whether additional police
prevent crime may depend on how well they are focused on specific objectives, tasks, places,

times and people. Most of all, it may depend upon putting police where serious crime is
concentrated, at the times it is most likely to occur: policing focused on risk factors.

Eight Major Hypotheses about Policing and Crime:

1. Numbers of Police
2. Rapid Response to 911

3. Random Patrols
4. Directed Patrols
5. Reactive Arrests

6. Proactive Arrests
7. Community Policing
8. Problem-Oriented Policing

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