NCJ Number
121574
Date Published
1989
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The Baltimore Police Department implemented two community policing strategies for one year: foot patrol and "ombudsman policing," in which officers worked with community residents on identifying the most serious crime problems in the area and devising means of addressing those problems.
Abstract
Three areas in each of two city neighborhoods were selected for the experiment and randomly assigned either foot patrol, ombudsman policing, or no new police program. The results were evaluated by comparing the attitudinal and victimization measures collected through personal interviews, conducted with the same residents before and one year after the programs were initiated. Monthly calls for police service and crime data were also analyzed. The results indicated that ombudsman policing, when practiced with a full-time staff, produced highly significant improvements in public evaluations of police effectiveness and behavior, reduced perceptions of disorder and awareness of victimization in the areas, and increased feelings of safety. When practiced with a part-time staff, ombudsman policing resulted in improved evaluations of police effectiveness, but achieved none of the other desirable effects. Foot patrol achieved no significant effect on evaluations of police, had mixed effects on perceptions of crime and disorder, and led to some reduction in the awareness of crime. The full results are reported in "Baltimore Community Policing Experiment: Technical Report and Appendixes," see NCJ-121575. (Author abstract modified)