Catching Career Criminals - The Washington, DC, Repeat Offender Project

• NCJ Number: 102044
• Author(s): S E Martin; L W Sherman
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 18 pages
• Grant Number(s): 82-IJ-CX-0063
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: Police Foundation; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Police Foundation Reports 3

Annotation

This study assessed the effectiveness of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department's Repeat Offender Project (ROP), a proactive police approach designed to apprehend repeat offenders.

Abstract

The ROP unit, consisting of 88 officers at the start and later dropping to 60 officers, began in 1982. This 1983-84 controlled evaluation compared prior arrest histories and current case dispositions of a sample of defendants arrested by 40 ROP and 169 non-ROP officers. Arrest productivity rates of both groups also were compared. Of ROP arrests, 46 percent were offenders wanted on warrant, 24 percent were offenders believed to be actively committing felonies, and 30 percent were offenders encountered serendipitously while officers were pursuing previously selected ROP targets. By most measures, the ROP unit achieved its goals. It increased both the likelihood of arrests of targets, the seriousness of the criminal histories of its arrestees, the probability of prosecution for a felony, the chance of a felony conviction, and the length of the term of those incarcerated. ROP, however, decreased its officers' arrest productivity: ROP officers made only half as many total arrests as non-ROP officers, but made slightly more arrests of serious offenders. 5 figures, 1 table, and 30 references.