This Washington Post article reports on how a recent attempt to put “all hands” on the street didn’t accomplish a reduction in crime in Washington. DC Police Chief Lanier often critical of her predecessor Ramsey, feels her approach reduces crime better than his crime alert emergencies.
Putting the politics aside, the larger picture is whether putting a high concentration of law enforcement officers in a location for so called “zero tolerance” or”saturation” activities is practical, cost effective and worth the risk of civilian and law enforcement personnel.
Without a concentrated effort from police, probation social services, we are doomed to fail, simply stopping activity for a short period of time or simply moving it some place else.
Instead of taking all staff away from proactive and education program and eliminating those positions working to identify problems and work with the communities to reduce and eliminate crime, we will continue to operate under the misconception that more cops visible will deter crime. The now famous Kansas City experiment showed us about the only difference in levels and visibility of officers in various areas accomplished was to make residents feel safer…even if they were not.
Surprisingly, one of the best overall deterrents to crime is an organized and well executed traffic enforcement program. Not only does it provide visibility, but also quick officer deployment when needed. The number of individuals stopped for violations that ultimate result in warrant arrests is usually surprising. Given the issues of profiling now, it makes this concept more difficult to supervise but still doable.
Herman Goldstein in his books policing a free society and problem oriented policing, rightly describes the need to identify the causation factors that lead to the problems that are identified. This means homicide detectives should a devote a portion of their time to analysis and prevention not just investigation. It takes time and there is a very real risk for any police administrator who tries newer concepts not embraced by television programs since it seems the majority of policy holders and those who hold her/his job in their political balance often assess their performance based on how they compare to CSI Miami.
With the advent of intelligence led policing there is an opportunity to evaluate trends and work to anticipate where problems occur. It is then wise to allocate scarce resources to those areas to prevent and deter crime. Of course this doesn’t make good 6PM news footage but it is good solid investigative police work.
Since I’m regularly accused of not adhering to “real police work”, IE, kicking A_ _ and taking names, I’m pleased to report that since that type of policing has it roots in managing the slave trade in the 1600 and 1700’s through fear, intimidation and violence, I’m happy to advocate a new way of doing things. I suspect that are a lot of folks out there who feel the same way.
Don’t be fooled by the smoke screen of a surge or sweep mentality. It won’t serve the long term problem. Contrary to commonly held belief, the bad guys/gals read the paper and watch TV too. They are savvy in knowing how far an administrator can go politically before getting their wings clipped. The only folks who win in these situations are the crooks.