NCJ Number
172167
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1997) Pages: 151-162
Date Published
1997
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article evaluates a community policing program in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Abstract
Tuscaloosa's police department designed the Police Community Service Program to reduce crime and improve community relations in a public housing project. Community service officers established an office within the housing project and continued to patrol the area, with emphasis on service to the community. The officers worked varied hours to allow 24-hour-a-day/7-day-a-week coverage of the housing project. Findings revealed an increase in crime for the experimental neighborhood, but the increase was smaller than the increase of reported crime in the surrounding neighborhood and in a control housing project. The experimental subjects had more positive attitudes toward the control of crime in their neighborhoods and the reduction of pathology and appeared to benefit from the presence of the Community Service Officers Program. Data from the study supported a recommendation to continue the project. Key to this recommendation was continued evaluation and expanded research to permit effective evaluation of the factors affecting crime rates in the neighborhoods surrounding the experimental and control neighborhoods. Tables, references