Police Shopfronts and Reporting to Police by Retailers

• NCJ Number: 209643
• Author(s): Natalie Taylor; Kate Charlton
• Date Published: March 2005
• Length: 6 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: This paper is from the Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice series No. 295.

Annotation

This study compared the officially reported crime levels, self-reported crime levels experienced by retailers, and perceptions of crime reduction in two shopping centers, one with a police shopfront and one without.

Abstract

The Queensland police service currently has 49 police beat shopfronts in shopping centers and central business districts in operation across Queensland. Findings from prior evaluations of the effectiveness of police beats have been inconclusive. This study sought to answer the following: do patterns of official reporting by retailers change after implementation of a shopfront; are retailers more willing to report crime at a center with a shopfront than one without a shopfront; and if official reporting significantly increases at a center is it due to an increase in crime or in increase in willingness to report crime? Questionnaires were distributed to retailers in two shopping centers in the south of Queensland in May 2004, one with a police shopfront and one without. The questionnaires were brief and covered retailer’s experiences of victimization, reporting and perceptions of crime. A total of 145 questionnaires were completed and returned. Survey results found that, consistent with the hypothesis, officially reported crime increased significantly at the center with a shopfront, while the increase at the comparison center was not significant. The significant increase in reported crime was explained by the fact that retailers at the center with the shopfront were more willing to report crimes compared to the center without a shopfront. In addition, while retailers at the shopfront center perceived that crime at their center had decreased slightly, retailers at the comparison center perceived that crime had increased slightly. These findings support the interpretation that police shopfronts do have an impact on crime levels but that it is necessary to compare self-report crime data with official data to reveal the impact. References, 2 figures, and 2 tables