Cody W. Telep

How Much Time Should the Police Spend at Crime Hot Spots? Answers from a Police Agency Directed Randomized Field Trial in Sacramento, California

Hot spots policing has been shown to be an effective strategy for reducing crime across a number of rigorous evaluations, but despite this strong body of research, there still exist gaps in our knowledge of how officers can best respond to hot spots. We report on a randomized experiment in Sacramento, California that begins to address these gaps by testing the recommendation from prior research that police officers randomly rotate between hot spots, spending about 15 min patrolling in each. Our results suggest significant overall declines in both calls for service and crime incidents in the treatment hot spots relative to the controls. Additionally, the study was carried out primarily by the Sacramento Police Department without any outside funding. In an era of limited economic resources for policing, this experiment suggests a model by which police agencies can take ownership of science and oversee the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions.

Receptivity to Research in Policing

Evidence-based policing—using research and scientific processes to inform police decisions—is a complex approach to policing that involves various challenges. One primary difficulty is how research can be translated into digestible and familiar forms for practitioners. A central part of successful translation is the receptivity of decisionmakers to research as well as how research is presented and packaged to increase receptivity. In this article we first discuss the complexity of evidence-based policing, highlighting the much-lamented gap between research and practice. We review research from other disciplines and also in policing about what contributes to research being better received and used by practitioners. We then describe our own receptivity survey, offering preliminary findings about the receptivity of officers to research, researchers, and tactics influenced by research. Finally, we conclude with examples of the types of efforts practitioners and researchers can engage in that might improve receptivity to research. Specifically, we discuss the Evidence-Based Policing Matrix as a research translation tool, as well as multiple demonstrations conducted by the authors that focus on institutionalizing the use of research into daily police activities.

What is Known About the Effectiveness of Police Practices in Reducing Crime and Disorder

We build upon previous reviews of the police effectiveness literature to categorize strategies and tactics based on what police should and should not be doing. We also provide relevant information on what police agencies should be doing to implement effective strategies. We argue police should be focusing on hot spots policing, problem-oriented policing (POP), focused deterrence approaches, directed patrol to reduce gun crime, and using DNA in property cases. Police should also recognize the importance of efforts to enhance legitimacy. In contrast, police should be avoiding standard policing tactics such as random preventive patrol, second responder programs, and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.). We discuss how well current policing practices match up with effective approaches, describe general implications for policing, and conclude by noting policing strategies which we know too little about to make informed recommendations.

Could Innovations in Policing have Contributed to the New York City Crime Drop even in a Period of Declining Police Strength?: The Case of Stop, Question and Frisk as a Hot Spots Policing Strategy

Available data make it impossible to reach strong conclusions about the role of policing in the New York crime decline. Instead, we examine whether innovations implemented in New York fit with what is known about effective policing strategies. Our main analysis focuses on how the New York City Police Department (NYPD) could have continued to contribute to the crime drop over the last decade when the number of police declined significantly. We examine geographic data on crime and stop, question and frisks (SQFs) to show that SQFs are concentrated at crime hot spots. We also show that the NYPD increased these specific hot spots policing strategies despite declining numbers. In our discussion, we speculate on whether this “doing more with less” could be an explanation for the continued crime drop in New York, noting the limitations of drawing conclusions from existing data. We also raise concerns about possible backfire effects of SQF hot spots approaches.

Hot Spots Policing: What We Know and What We Need to Know

After reviewing the evidence regarding the general effectiveness of hot spots policing (what we know), we focus on areas where new knowledge must be developed (what we need to know). These include the importance of considering the impact of hot spots approaches on non-spatial displacement; assessing what strategies are most effective in addressing hot spots; examining how hot spots policing affects police legitimacy; evaluating whether hot spots policing will be effective in smaller cities and rural areas; investigating the long-term impacts of hot spots policing; and considering whether the adoption of hot spots policing will reduce overall crime in a jurisdiction.

The Receptivity of Officers to Empirical Research and Evidence-Based Policing: An Examination of Survey Data From Three Agencies

Police officer receptivity to empirical research and evidence-based policing is important to consider because officers are responsible for implementing approaches validated by research on the street. Officer survey data from Sacramento, California; Richmond, Virginia; and Roanoke County, Virginia suggest prospects and challenges for advancing evidence-based policing. Generally, officers use few tools to learn about research, but their views are in line with the evidence for some strategies. Officers typically value experience more than research to guide practice, but they also tend to recognize the importance of working with researchers to address crime. Officers show some willingness to conduct evaluations but are most interested in using less rigorous methodologies. The findings across agencies are fairly similar, although some differences do emerge.

The Efficiency of Place-Based Policing

In this chapter we argue that place based policing is not only effective but is also an efficient approach for the police. We present a growing body of evidence that suggests that police efforts to combat crime at small places represent an opportunity to increase the efficiency of police strategies to control crime and disorder.

Police Officer Receptivity to Research and Evidence-Based Policing: Examining Variability Within and Across Agencies

Recent calls for police to focus more on integrating research into practice require paying closer attention to how receptive frontline practitioners are to using research. Officers in four U.S. municipal agencies (n = 992) were surveyed to assess their exposure to research, knowledge about the evidence base, view of science, and willingness to evaluate interventions. Multivariate results show that officer awareness of evidence-based policing and willingness to work with researchers are influenced by education and prior research exposure. These factors strongly predict more specific indicators of receptivity. Results also suggest substantial variation in attitudes across agencies, emphasizing the importance of organizational context. The most receptive officers in our sample vary significantly from all others on multiple experience variables.

Spatial displacement and diffusion of crime control benefits revisited: New evidence on why crime doesn’t just move around the corner

This book is a tribute to the work of criminologist Professor Ronald V. Clarke, in view of his enormous and enduring contribution to criminology and crime science.

Rigorous evaluation research among US police departments: special cases or a representative sample?

This study considers whether police departments’ characteristics relate to the methodology and results of the evaluations that they participate in, and contrasts police departments that have carried out rigorous crime prevention research to comparison groups of US police agencies. Findings include departments that participate in quasi-experimental crime prevention research are larger and more likely to find statistically significant successes than those that participate in experiments, and evaluators differ in composition and practices from most US police departments. This suggests that researchers and policy makers should involve smaller suburban and rural police agencies to increase the generalizability of evaluation research.