Foot Patrol: Rethinking the Cornerstone of Policing (SpringerBriefs in Criminology)

Annotation This Brief reviews the history of foot patrol and the recent, research-driven resurgence of foot patrol in places such as Philadelphia. It summarizes and critiques existing literature on the subject, examining the efficacy of foot patrol. At the time the Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment was published, popular opinion about foot patrol was that it might improve community perception of police and reduce fear of crime, but it did not have a concrete crime prevention benefit. The Philadelphia Experiment represented a major examination of this concept, involving over 200 officers in 60 locations over a two-year period, in some of the highest violent crime areas of Philadelphia. The results suggested that a targeted hot spots-oriented foot patrol strategy did contribute to violent crime reduction. Four years later, the lead author of that seminal experiment explores its findings, together with the findings of the Philadelphia Policing Tactics Experiment, and examines their differences. This work also explores officer experiences with foot patrol. This Brief concludes with policy recommendations about foot patrol, when and how to implement it, and the benefits it can add to a police department. This Brief will be of interest to researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice, particularly with an interest in Police Studies, and related fields such as sociology and public policy. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers interested in evidence-based policing Acknowledgments 6 Contents 7 About the Authors 9 Crowd-Pleasers and Crime Fighters 10 References 14 A History of Foot Patrol 16 Introduction 16 Humble Beginnings 17 Peel’s Great Experiment 18 The Early Days of American Policing 19 The Political Era 19 The Professional Era and the Decline of Foot Patrols 20 Conflicting Pressures Slowly Drive a Crisis in Policing 21 Policing Starts to Learn What Works 22 Community Policing 24 Experimenting with Foot Patrol 25 Rethinking the Unit of Analysis 26 References 28 The Philadelphia Experience 30 The Past Rediscovered 30 The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment 32 The Experimental Design 34 Implementing the Foot Patrols 37 The Officer Experience 38 The Limits of Beat Boundaries 40 Evaluation 41 The Philadelphia Policing Tactics Experiment 42 Foot Patrol During the Tactics Experiment 44 How and Why Did the Experimental Results Differ? 45 Where Next for Foot Patrol? 47 References 48 The Foot Beat Experience 51 What Is Real Police Work? 53 What Did Foot Patrol Officers Do? 56 Harm Reduction and Harm-Focused Policing 59 The Conundrum of Performance Evaluations 61 Balancing Community Work with Enforcement Actions 61 The Need to Leave: Difficulties Maintaining Beat Integrity 64 Conclusions 68 References 68 Foot Patrol Policies 71 Introduction 71 Selecting the Right Officers 72 Training Foot Patrol Officers 75 The Geographic Area for Foot Patrol 76 Hot Spots Within Hot Spots: The Hotspot Matrix 77 Other Foot Beat Area Considerations 79 Tasking Foot Patrol Officers 80 Permanent or Park-and-Walk Patrols? 83 Incorporating Foot Beats into an Area’s Overall Crime Control Strategy 84 The Community Component 85 Assessing and Rewarding Foot Patrol 87 Conclusion 88 References 90 Index 92 Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Crowd-Pleasers and Crime Fighters (Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Evan T. Sorg)....Pages 1-6 A History of Foot Patrol (Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Evan T. Sorg)....Pages 7-20 The Philadelphia Experience (Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Evan T. Sorg)....Pages 21-41 The Foot Beat Experience (Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Evan T. Sorg)....Pages 43-62 Foot Patrol Policies (Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Evan T. Sorg)....Pages 63-83 Back Matter ....Pages 85-87