Foot Patrols Foot Patrol Effectiveness Community Policing

¶ … Foot Patrols

Foot Patrol Effectiveness

Community policing strategies are oriented towards establishing and maintaining a working relationship between the police and community residents, in order to identify and solve problems that foster disorder and criminal activity (Community Oriented Policing Services, n.d.). One policing strategy favored by community residents is foot patrols, but police administrators have been reluctant to implement them because they are considered expensive, ineffective, and obsolete (Police Foundation, 2012). This essay will examine whether there is sufficient evidence to support police administrators' reluctance to adopt foot patrols for community policing.

Foot Patrol Efficacy

The Police Foundation (2012), an organization supporting community policing implementation, agrees with the generally-accepted view that foot patrols increases the sense of safety by neighborhood residents and their satisfaction with police services. However, they argue that foot patrols should be implemented only when police departments are flush with money. Given the current fiscal crisis, foot patrols would therefore be a luxury that departments can ill afford. The Police Foundation attributes the public perception that foot patrols increase safety and lower crime rates to memories of a bygone era, when crime rates were lower and residents felt more connected to the community.

Two studies have examined the effectiveness of foot patrols in reducing crime rates. The first was conducted in Newark, New Jersey in the late 1970s. Compared to motorized patrols, foot patrols had a dramatic positive impact on residents' perceptions of crime rates and safety (Police Foundation, 2012). Crime rates, however, were not affected during the one year study period. The Police Foundation though, suggests that foot patrols may have a long-term positive effect on crime rates by acting as a deterrent for future criminality.

The second study was conducted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the summer of 2009 (Ratcliffe, Taniguchi, Groff, and Wood, 2011). In contrast to previous studies, the Philadelphia study focused on violent crime hotspots. These hotspots were identified by the frequency of murders, aggravated assault, and robberies occurring outdoors for the three years preceding the study. Compared to control hotspots, foot patrolled hotspots above the 60th percentile in terms of violence experienced a significant decline in crime rates (p = 0.05 or better). Based on these findings, foot patrols are effective in quickly reducing violent crime rates at hotspots and the more violent a hotspot the more effective the foot patrols.

The results of the Philadelphia study are in line with reports from district police commanders in Washington, D.C., who have found that foot patrols dramatically reduced the incidence of robberies and street-level drug dealing (Klein, 2007). One commander, Diane Groomes, actually ordered her police administrators to walk a beat at least one hour every day.