Does traditional police patrol effectively reduce crime rates?

Traditional Police Patrol

There are various units of each community and society that need to function effectively in order to keep a check on the level of stability and the efficient working of the system. Similarly the police forces and the criminal department in every country play an important role in ensuring the safety and security of its population. It fights against the people who are a threat to the order of the society. There are different schools of thought who argue whether or not an increase in the level of traditional police patrolling would help combat the level of criminal activity. There have been considerable evidences supporting both sides of the argument. However, it weighs down upon the notion that suggests there can be better enforcers rather than police patrolling which does not count as an effective measure in the cause.

What is traditional Police Patrolling?

Crime Prevention is one of the very sensitive topics that we come across in our society. With the increasing level of globalization and the rising disparity between the classes in society, the crime rates are increasing along with other social problems in the world. To prevent this and to minimize the extent to which this occurs, it is important to increase the level of police patrol or other forms of action against it. It is however a variable concept as to whether the increase in police patrol helps or not.

The nature of traditional policing is very reactive. It involves the police patrolling the streets while their shift is in progress and observing and catching the crimes that they observe and come across. They may sometimes be dispatched in response to calls that tell them that somewhere there is a crime in progress. The general interaction between the public and the police is that of a negative sense and it is not to suggest that the increase in the police patrol will help reduce the crime in anyway.

There is a conflict between various schools of thought in their efforts to analyze the extent to which the increasing traditional police patrol might help combat the crimes or it would just help highlight certain crime groups due to the allocation or increase in the number of surveillance methods to watch over the crime taking place.

Negatives of Traditional Police Patrol

There are also some traditions that state that increasing the police patrol will do no good and cannot be used as a tool to help eradicate the criminal activities from the society. Their point of argument says that this increase in the police patrolling might help bring up crime into the lime light and catch more crimes in the areas where police patrol is increased but it does not necessarily mean that they would be able to eliminate crime from those areas.

In their opinion, this highlighting of the crime in these areas will contribute to increase the level of chaos and fear in the society. As more and more crime will be brought up to light, people will start fearing coming out of their homes and leading normal lives without the fear of getting mugged, violated, assaulted or a part of any other criminal activity. This will instill much more fear in people and more catching of the criminals will just cause them to change the localities where they operate and carry out their activities.

They strongly believe in the displacement theory which suggests that if the police patrol increases in one particular area, the activity of the criminals and such actions will be directed to another part of the country. Also, this will not in any way instill fear or guilt in the criminals and those subjecting to such things. It will just cause more trouble for the residents and create chaos, confusion and terrorize them in different ways. It will also disturb the peace and calm environment of the societies.

Some researchers suggest that crime has various sets of factors which cannot be addressed in a particular way. Different forms of crimes require different ways to tackle them. They also need different kinds of police forces to handle different crimes because no every area faces the same form of crimes. Some areas may require a strict overview of the public areas while others may require a watch out at the residential street corners which may be deserted at night. At other places, patrolling might not help at all and redirect criminal behavior elsewhere (Hesseling, 1994).

A recent traditional patrolling experiment was conducted in Kansas City where one area was strictly patrolled by increased police officers, the other was left on its regular patrolling schedule and the third area barely had any traces of police cars or officers. This was an experiment conducted over a span of 12 months and resulted in there being no considerable difference in all three areas. This show how there is not much difference by increasing the level of patrolling of the police.

Some people suggest that police patrolling might help if the police actually manage to do something and implement some action to prevent criminal activities. Just a strict surveillance or acting upon people's calls and reporting of crimes might help people feel more secure and they might trust the police to help keep them safer. This way crime may be able to be controlled without even installing more policemen. The punishments for catching the criminal activities should also be strict enough for people to think twice before committing an act. According to the classical sociologists, criminals are very rational in making their decisions about committing crime. They weigh out what they will gain from the act and how much trouble they will call upon themselves if they get caught. Hence, one way in which to reduce the crime rates would be to enforce strict actions and rules that are actually implemented.

Some sociological researchers have also evaluated that some police forces are highly discriminating and biased in their fight against crime. They may discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, religion or class. Many times it is seen that the police forces are also bribed by the more powerful groups in society or they go soft on some groups while they penalize and take action against the other groups.

An example of this may be the fact that in multicultural societies, there is often discrimination based on color and the blacks are more likely to be caught and taken action against by the police because the blacks are stereotyped to be trouble makers in different countries. The same act being committed by a white person may not call upon that much of the police wrath. Due to these reactions towards the different groups, the police may end up installing more police in the areas where there are more blacks and they live and are residing there. Hence, in this way the police may be able to catch the people more but it is not to suggest that they eradicate crime. Also these police forces go very harsh on these groups and are highly suspicious of them whether or not they do something (Maguire, 2000).

Similarly, the young teenagers are highly adventurous and like to indulge in such activities such as joy riding, shop lifting, mugging, drug dealing, etc. The police are well aware of the fact that the young generation indulges in these activities out of their curiosity and their adventurous natures and they keep a strict eye out for these young children and arrest them for the slightest of issues. Again we see that this is an area where there is a lot of discrimination carried out which results in more people being highlighted as trouble makers. This does not signify that these children are criminals nor are regular thieves. Their adventures and their mischievous behavior is misunderstood and penalized by the police forces because they need to gain something out of their job and it would be a waste not getting anything in return so they take action against these younger generations. This is not because the police patrolling helps catch criminals. In fact, it unnecessarily puts pressure on certain groups.

In the case of the sex and gender differences, the police patrolling is mainly focused on the male population because they go soft on the women. According to the chivalry thesis, women are biologically formed in a way that they can hide their crimes effectively and fooling those around them. This is one reason why despite increasing the police forces and patrolling, the women criminals are rarely found and can get away easily because the men tend to have a softer side for the women and especially because men are more inclined to be tough and the care takers of the family so they may subject to criminal activities because of the increasing pressures.

The police forces are therefore of no use even if they are increased in number because they cannot exactly detect all the criminal activities taking places and their actions are directed in one particular direction which is why they are able to detect only some forms of crimes and some groups that are more highlighted as a result (Wartell, 1996).

Other forms of criminal activities such as rapes, assaults, domestic violence are also severe forms of criminal activities but these are not present out in the open neither can normal police patrolling detect such criminals because they take place in remote, isolated and hidden areas. Crimes such as domestic violence cannot be eradicated so easily because they are rarely reported and they are carried out by someone close to the victim, which is why they fear the reporting of it and getting into more trouble which makes it very difficult to fight against such crimes.

Rapes and suicides also occur after much planning and the criminal usually has an entire plot which is not easily identified and the traditional police patrolling cannot help eliminate these crimes and have no effect on the rates of such crimes. In the cases of these crimes, as mentioned above, it is more important to take action and implement rules and laws when they are reported so that the criminals are made aware of the consequences which would discourage them of any act like this in future.

There are various experiments and evidences now that are for the fact that police forces in fact cannot help combat crimes just by increasing the police patrolling. There are other duties that the police need to fulfill and have plans of action to make sure that they catch the criminal activities in progress. Their actions are usually directed in a particular direction which does not help but only highlights certain areas of crime in society which is of little help. There needs to be equal attention laid upon the different crimes taking place and being implemented in the society.

Another very common area highlighted by the police and often has high alert police patrolling are the red-light districts of the countries. There is a lot of emphasis laid by the police and there are many crimes detected in such areas. But this also brings up a problem because these are not the only areas that have such a form of criminal activity taking place. This crime is usually spread out in different areas and districts of the country and are not even highlighted that much. This is one such crime where both the parties are involved which is why the concept is so hidden and not discussed so much. Excessive police patrolling will not be able to eradicate this in any way because people will find other outlets to seek these activities. The displacement theory comes into effect in this area as well because crime will just be scattered and dispersed in this way. The effectiveness of the police forces is hence not realized and other outlets are to be sought to control the population.

Some recent criminologists have suggested that instead of just increasing the police patrol levels, it will be more effective if the implementation was brought under check and there were different kinds of measures taken for different forms of criminal activities in different areas because the severity of the crime varies as well as the groups committing the crimes.

There are measures such as surveillance cameras, alarm systems and call systems which may be better enforcements for the issues. Time and again studies have proven that the police force enforcements are a failure to cater to catch criminals and they rarely are of any help. This process just increases the labor costs of employing the police patrol forces and they do not generate any results either which is why many countries do not rely on this as a measure to hunt out crimes.

Some recent studies also suggest that permanent police patrols are less effective as compared to random checks in such areas where the police suspect such activities take place because the criminals are caught off guard which may be a more effective way to counter the criminal activities because they don't know what and when to expect the police to show up which might prove to effectively minimize their activities. It is thus more favorable for there to be occasional checkups by the police patrols all over the country rather than a permanent increase in the level of police forces.

To draw a conclusion from the above argument, it can be assessed that fighting crime can be one of the sensitive issues in the society that need to be dealt with extra care in order to sustain the peace and the stability of the society, community, and the country as a whole because it is linked with the overall well being of the country. Hence, the police forces need to take effective measures in order to eradicate such activities which might prove to be a tough job.