Preventive Policing Strategies: Types, Strengths, Weaknesses, And Side Effects

Introduction to Preventive Policing Strategies

Question:

Discuss about the Preventive Policing Strategies.

Preventive Policing Strategies are developed for preventing and reducing large-scale crime rate in the community Krüsi et al. (2016). There are several types of preventive policing strategies, which serve different types of crime prevention methods within the community. This study will critically analyze different types of preventive policing strategies citing their examples. Apart from that, the study will also discuss the strength and weakness of these strategies and demonstrate their impact on the community. Furthermore, the study will also discuss the side effects of these policing strategies.

Law enforcement agencies have implemented several strategies and methods for combating with crime and ensuring public safety. Policing strategies have gone far beyond just responding to calls and service. Preventive policing strategies are now more concerned with seeking increasing crime prevention, intervention and response to crime prevention like community outreach, crime mapping, efficient resource distribution, suspect location, crime data collection and many more. According to Sherman et al. (2014), the focus of preventive policing strategies is to reduce and deter the crime and criminal behavior in partnership with the community. Different preventive strategies are effective in different situations for preventing crime in the community through protecting it from external threats. On the other hand, Buerger and Mazerolle (1998) opined that resources used in the crime prevention strategies may be different, but the goal of the strategies is unique and directed towards major crime prevention in the community.

Hotspot policing strategy is actually invented by majority of U.S Police departments. Later, it has been adopted by several other countries including Australia. According to Desmond and Valdez (2013), hotspot policing strategy is actually used on small geographical areas, where crime rate is concentrated. Moreover, such police preventive strategies are actually in urban areas, where crime rate is highly frequent. On the other hand, Weisburd and Telep (2014) opined that “hotspot preventive strategies are mostly used in the small geographical areas, where the crime rate is highly predictable and frequent, which is at least over a one period” (pp. 200-220). In this strategy, the law enforcement agencies are focused on limiting the police resources in the areas, where the frequency of crime rate is quite higher. As per, Braga, Papachristos and Hureau (2014) the appeal of hotspot strategy relies on reduction of overall crime rate of city through focusing on small hotspot areas. Furthermore, this preventive strategy also uses various forms of crime mapping for identifying the crime towards effective prevention. While considering the example of hotspot policing strategy, it can be seen that hotspot policing strategy is mainly used in Drug Market Intervention of Australia for preventing drug usage and sell in some specific areas.

Hotspot Policing Strategy: Concept, Examples and Criticism

Hotspot prevention strategy is used for improving the quality of life of the community through reducing the rate of crime occurrence in a small geographical area. According to Gill et al. (2014), hotspot policing uses advance software technology for predicting the crime to be occurred. Furthermore, this strategy is also popular for digging deeper of the crime for finding accurate solution for crime prevention. However, Camacho, Lee and Smith (2016) opined that hotspot prevention strategy is only limited to small geographical area. Therefore, it cannot solve the bigger crime issue for large geographical areas. Furthermore, the limited resources of hotspot strategy may also hamper the crime prevention effectiveness of specific area.

Zero Tolerance policing is strict non-discretionary law enforcement approach, which is thought to be tough on crime. Under this police preventive approach, the police enforce every aspect of law. According to Davis (2013), zero tolerance policy is the police preventive strategy, which imposes strict punishment upon infraction of stated rules. The intension of this law is to eliminate undesirable conduct from the community. On the other hand, Bornstein (2015) opined that zero tolerance policy forbid the person having authority to change the punishment for the crime for fitting circumstances subjectively. Moreover, this preventive strategy pays closer attention to the minor offences for enhancing the quality of life of the community people. Such minor offences are like graffiti, public drinking, drink driving, vagrancy, begging and many more. While considering the example of zero tolerance policy, it has been found that the police force of Australia uses zero tolerance preventive strategy for preventing the drink driving in South Australia.

Zero tolerance policing always enhance the quality of the people in the community through minimizing even the minor offence.  According to Davis (2013), zero tolerance policy is highly effective for preventing even minor offenses, which can later be taken the shape of large crime. Moreover, this strategy is popular for its protection to the potentiality of large-scale crime. However, Bornstein (2015) opined that zero tolerance policing strategy has nothing to prevent the large-scale crime. Therefore, it is limited to protect the community from large-scale crime. Furthermore, this policing preventive strategy has also some side effects, which can affect the community people. Moreover, punishing the people even for minor offense can enhance their anger level, which can in turn enhance their tendency to conduct large-scale crime.

Problem-oriented policing involves identification and analysis of specific crime and disorder problems for developing specific response strategies. According to Corsaro, Brunson and McGarrell (2013), police force uses problem-oriented policing for proactively identifying the underlying problems towards reducing the crime and disorders from their roots. The police forces are expected to analyze the specific problem of the community systematically and search for resolving the problem completely by analyzing the impact of the efforts. On the other hand, Cameron (1990) opined that “problem-oriented policing majorly focuses on identification for repeatedly occurring incidents in the community and resolving that repeatedly occurring crime in the community” (pp. 477-512). While considering the example of problem-oriented policing, it can be seen that the police force of Australia uses problem-oriented policing strategy for responding to the complaints of illegal drug use and sales on a regular basis in Australia. 

Zero Tolerance Policing: Concept, Examples, and Criticism

Problem-oriented policing strategy effectively builds police community relation through involving the community in finding the repeatedly occurring crime. This police preventive strategy actually provides long lasting and improves quality for the community people through resolving a specific repeatedly occurring crime. According to Corsaro, Brunson and McGarrell (2013), Problem-oriented policing strategy is extremely popular in the community because of its ability towards resolving the repeatedly occurring crime from its root. This strategy is also advantageous for accurately identifying the pattern a specific crime and providing best solution to its. However, Mazerolle, Darroch and White (2013) opined that Problem-oriented policing strategy is limited to identify the root of the repeatedly occurring crime, if the crime is displaced from one region to other. Moreover, the police forces are generally reluctant to identify the crime within their region. However, they are reluctant to indentify the crime, when it is displaced to another region. Furthermore, problem-oriented policing strategy is also limited to deal with minor crimes in the community. While considering the side effect of this preventive strategy, it can create unnecessary threats within community people even if there is actually no crime at all.

Predictive policing preventive strategy involves usage of mathematical, analytical and predictive techniques in law enforcement towards identifying potential criminal activities. Mohler et al. (2015) pointed out that Predictive policing uses innovative approach of preventing crime before it starts. The method of predictive strategy incorporates both small-scale and large-scale crime in the community. According to Choi and Lee (2016), predictive strategy mostly uses crime mapping tool for assessing the potentiality of the crime to be occurred in the community. Moreover, crime mapping needs some historical data related to the potential crime. In such situation, the police force can collected such crime information from the community people, which build the interdependence relation between the police and community. While considering the example of Predictive policing preventive strategy, it can be seen that Australian police force mostly uses this strategy for identifying the location of the criminals through using crime mapping.

Mohler et al. (2015) stated that predictive policing is highly popular for its ability to prevent the crime before in occur and protect the community from large-scale disruption. However, Choi and Lee (2016) argued that predictive policing can perform wrong crime mapping on collection of insufficient information related to the potential crime. While considering the side effect of predictive policing, it can be seen that blaming people based on wrong crime mapping can disappoint the suspected people in the community.

Problem-Oriented Policing: Concept, Examples, and Criticism

Conclusion

While concluding the study, it can be said that policing preventive strategies are framed to prevent the crime rate in the community. Hotspot policing strategy is focused on small geographical areas towards preventing the crime rate. On the other hand, zero-tolerance policing focuses on preventing minor offense towards protecting the community from large-scale crime. However, this policy has nothing to do with large-scale crime of the community. Furthermore, problem oriented policing identifies the underlying causes of the repeatedly occurring crime in the community. Moreover, this strategy resolves the crime from its roots. However, displacement of the crime can reduce the effectiveness of this strategy.

References

Bornstein, A., 2015. Institutional Racism, Numbers Management, and Zero?Tolerance Policing in New York City. North American Dialogue, 18(2), pp.51-62.

Braga, A.A., Papachristos, A.V. and Hureau, D.M., 2014. The effects of hot spots policing on crime: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Justice Quarterly, 31(4), pp.633-663.

Buerger, M.E. and Mazerolle, L.G., 1998. Third-party policing: A theoretical analysis of an emerging trend. Justice quarterly, 15(2), pp.301-327.

Camacho, A., Lee, H.R.L. and Smith, L.M., 2016. Modelling policing strategies for departments with limited resources. European Journal of Applied Mathematics, 27(3), pp.479-501.

Cameron, N., 1990, March. The police and crime control: Effectiveness, community policing, and legal change. In Criminal Law Forum 1(3), pp. 477-512).

Choi, K. and Lee, J.L., 2016. Citizen participation in community safety: a comparative study of community policing in South Korea and the UK. Policing and Society, 26(2), pp.165-184.

Corsaro, N., Brunson, R.K. and McGarrell, E.F., 2013. Problem-oriented policing and open-air drug markets: Examining the Rockford pulling levers deterrence strategy. Crime & Delinquency, 59(7), pp.1085-1107.

Davis, D.E., 2013. Zero-tolerance policing, stealth real estate development, and the transformation of public space: Evidence from Mexico City. Latin American Perspectives, 40(2), pp.53-76.

Desmond, M. and Valdez, N., 2013. Unpolicing the urban poor: Consequences of third-party policing for inner-city women. American Sociological Review, 78(1), pp.117-141.

Gill, C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C.W., Vitter, Z. and Bennett, T., 2014. Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: a systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), pp.399-428.

Krüsi, A., Kerr, T., Taylor, C., Rhodes, T. and Shannon, K., 2016. ‘They won't change it back in their heads that we're trash’: the intersection of sex work?related stigma and evolving policing strategies. Sociology of health & illness, 38(7), pp.1137-1150.

Mazerolle, L., Darroch, S. and White, G., 2013. Leadership in problem-oriented policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 36(3), pp.543-560.

Mohler, G.O., Short, M.B., Malinowski, S., Johnson, M., Tita, G.E., Bertozzi, A.L. and Brantingham, P.J., 2015. Randomized controlled field trials of predictive policing. Journal of the American statistical association, 110(512), pp.1399-1411.

Sherman, L.W., Williams, S., Ariel, B., Strang, L.R., Wain, N., Slothower, M. and Norton, A., 2014. An integrated theory of hot spots patrol strategy: implementing prevention by scaling up and feeding back. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 30(2), pp.95-122.

Weisburd, D. and Telep, C.W., 2014. Hot spots policing: What we know and what we need to know. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 30(2), pp.200-220.