Traditional police patrol strategies and effectiveness

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.

Positives of increasing Crime Patrol

There are certain schools of thought who argue that increasing the level of crime patrol might just be the way to fight crime and reduce the extent to which it occurs. This might be true to a certain extent. Some recent researches have shown that most of the urban crimes that occur, take place on the streets around the corner and this involves all kinds of crimes. According to them, if the level of police patrol in increased in these areas, it will help provide better protection to people, they will feel safer and the criminal activities will be lowered down due to the fact that the police are present there to take any form of action against those that subject to violence, abuse, harassment or theft.

A recent study which was conducted back in 2010 by David L. Weisburd undertook a couple of experiments which stated that if the amount of traditional police patrol was increased in the highlighted areas of any country or district, the amount of crime occurring in that area might in fact be controlled. Their study showed that this does not push the crimes backwards but helps eliminate and lower them down on the whole. This study won the Stockholm Prize in Criminology for the credibility of their research and the experimentation conducted (Boydstun, 1975).

The research went on to suggest that in every country there are about 5% crime corners where more than 50% of the whole country's crime occurs. If the amount of crime patrol is increased in just a few of these areas, much of the crime will be able to be put under control even with the traditional patterns being applied to combating crime.

What Weisburd basically argued was that it is important to identify the areas where police patrolling is necessary instead of imposing police patrol in those areas where this is not required and yields no results. He emphasized the need to bridge the long gap that lay between the criminology team and the police forces of the country. The emphasis on the right areas would not just help make those areas safer and reduce crime there but also liberalize the residents of those areas to live as they please without fearing the crime or being irritated and violated by unnecessary police forces patrolling them all the time.

The emphasis of Weisburd's work was on the placement of police patrol on the high risk areas, block ends, street corners and markets where the use of drugs is high, where petty crimes like snatching cell phones, bags, wallets and other crimes are common and also where illegal practices take place. Police also fears that the increase in the patrol in these areas would just redirect them to some other place and this would not exactly be of much use. The concept of displacement will not exactly help eliminate the crimes which is the main motive of the police forces. Directing the crimes to some other place in that area would be of little help to the police. According to this research however, crime is more likely to take place in crowded areas such as markets, shopping malls, narrow streets or on isolated streets where there is little movement and no one to watch over. Hence these crimes can not exactly be displaced to another area and would in turn be eliminated or at least lowered down.

The police forces need to be spread out in such a way as to cover all these areas and it does not necessarily state that police patrolling needs to be immediately focused on the high catch zone areas. They can first be installed in the market places and street sides where these small crimes may be occurring and starting on the initial levels. Hence, more action and more look out for crimes according to this school of thought will help eliminate and bring down the level of crimes in these areas and reinforcing the security levels of these areas as well (Chamlin, 1996).

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.