NCJ Number
79567
Date Published
1980
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This review assesses the Cedar Rapids Police Department's (Iowa) installation, test, and evaluation of a large-scale burglar alarm system for the department.
Abstract
About 300 silent alarm systems wired to ring at police headquarters were installed in small businesses and schools in Cedar Rapids. A subset of this group was matched with a control group of businesses and schools without alarms (142 pairs in 1970 and 115 pairs in 1971). Burglary rates were compared between those businesses with alarm systems (experimental group) and those without alarms (control group). The study also analyzed data on false alarms and compared the number of false alarms for those installed as part of the project and private alarms. The research reviewed here focuses on the alarm system's apparent effect on crime-related behavior. Among the study's conclusions are that (1) the clearance rate for alarmed locations was more than twice as high as for unalarmed locations; (2) when an alarm was received, a theft loss occurred in only 11 percent of the cases; (3) burglars look for alarms, as indicated by the high rate of entry at unprotected points; and (4) the cost of the alarm system can be justified from the decrease in investigation and prosecution time alone. Most of the data reported in the study support the conclusions. The findings, however, cannot be generalized to encompass alarms systems not directly linked to the police station. The use of a quasi-experimental design, along with hypothesis testing, shows promise for future research on the relationship between environmental factors and crime. For the original report, see NCJ 02185. (Author summary modified)