Kansas City Preventative Experiment
Kan16 May 2012
CRJ 211
The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment
The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment was created to see if preventative patrols were effective in deterring crime from happening. The experiment used the Kansas City Police Department and they were evaluated and funded by the Police Foundation. The year-long experiment was going to test the effectiveness of the traditional police strategy of routine preventive patrol whether the resources in the Kansas City Police Department could be used in more productive patrol strategies. The experiment was supposed to start in July of 1972 but because of several problems it so it was stopped then resumed on October 1972- 1973 in Kansas City. At the time police departments believed that patrol was the key in preventing crimes from happening in communities because of officer presence. The Police Foundation wanted to test this theory with the preventative patrol experiment. There were four main questions that they were trying to answer with this experiment. The first question was “Would citizens notice changes in the level of patrol?” The next question was “Would the different levels of patrol actually effect the crimes level?” The third question was “Would the citizens’ fear of crime be affected by the change in patrol?” The final question that they were trying to answer was “Would the level of satisfaction with the police be affected by the level of patrol?” The Police Foundation found out through several types of surveys and through observation of citizen-police interactions. The type of surveys used were rate of arrests, the reported crime rates, surveys of citizens’ attitudes towards police, victimization surveys, and surveys from local businesses. The conducted the experiment by alternating the number of patrol officers in an area. They used fifteen areas in the city to conduct the experiment. They divided them into three different patrol beats. Each beat had of five areas. The first area
CRJ 211
The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment
The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment was created to see if preventative patrols were effective in deterring crime from happening. The experiment used the Kansas City Police Department and they were evaluated and funded by the Police Foundation. The year-long experiment was going to test the effectiveness of the traditional police strategy of routine preventive patrol whether the resources in the Kansas City Police Department could be used in more productive patrol strategies. The experiment was supposed to start in July of 1972 but because of several problems it so it was stopped then resumed on October 1972- 1973 in Kansas City. At the time police departments believed that patrol was the key in preventing crimes from happening in communities because of officer presence. The Police Foundation wanted to test this theory with the preventative patrol experiment. There were four main questions that they were trying to answer with this experiment. The first question was “Would citizens notice changes in the level of patrol?” The next question was “Would the different levels of patrol actually effect the crimes level?” The third question was “Would the citizens’ fear of crime be affected by the change in patrol?” The final question that they were trying to answer was “Would the level of satisfaction with the police be affected by the level of patrol?” The Police Foundation found out through several types of surveys and through observation of citizen-police interactions. The type of surveys used were rate of arrests, the reported crime rates, surveys of citizens’ attitudes towards police, victimization surveys, and surveys from local businesses. The conducted the experiment by alternating the number of patrol officers in an area. They used fifteen areas in the city to conduct the experiment. They divided them into three different patrol beats. Each beat had of five areas. The first area
Bibliography: Kelling,G, Pate,T, Dieckman,D, and Brown, C. “The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment: A Summary Report”. Washington, D.C.: Police Foundation, 1974, Print Walker,S, and Katz, C. “The Police in America: An Introduction”.7th edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print.