NCJ Number
220066
Journal
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 2007 Pages: 99-111
Date Published
2007
Length
13 pages
Annotation
Using a survey of police officers in three British police basic command units, this study examined the accuracy of their perceptions of the locations of residential burglary over the preceding year and during the preceding 2 weeks; and it considers how these perceptions might influence the deployment of police resources and operations.
Abstract
The findings indicate that although officers had a fairly accurate perception of where burglary occurred over the preceding year, they were less accurate in their perceptions of the geographic distribution of residential burglaries over the preceding 2 weeks. This may be because short-term "hotspots" for residential burglary are more unstable than long-term "hotspots." These findings suggest that police awareness of crime patterns and locations could be enhanced by the systematic use of crime mapping, particularly predictive mapping. Using the maps regularly would improve the development of both short-term and long-term strategies for deploying police resources to those areas at higher risk for crime. Across the 3 areas, 38 officers were interviewed. Residential burglary was a priority in all three jurisdictions at the time of the study. Senior officers and those who support them were surveyed, because they were the decisionmakers in the deployment of resources, the selection of police tactics, and the organization of crime-reduction strategies. The officers' estimates on the geographic distribution of residential burglary were compared with the actual burglary "hotspots" for each of the relevant time periods. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 26 references