NCJ Number
104775
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1987) Pages: 70-79
Date Published
1987
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Responses to research indicating that traditional police crime-control methods are limited in their effectiveness include the use of new crime-control strategies and the revising of police functions to make crime control a less central objective.
Abstract
Research concludes that increased police patrol and more rapid response times are not cost-effective in reducing crime. One response to this finding is to adopt new methods for detecting and solving crimes, such as the use of promising methods for analyzing evidence, increased cooperation between police and citizens in the fight against crime, police input to strengthen informal social control, and a focus on police order-maintenance functions. A fifth response to the research findings is to shift the test of police effectiveness from crime control to the handling of emergency situations that require police authority and ability to deal with potentially violent incidents. This revision of police priorities would involve setting criteria for the range of incidents police would address, measures of satisfactory outcomes for various types of incidents, and the balance to be struck between reactive and proactive intervention. All of the five options have a degree of promise as well as risks, but some effort must be made to set and pursue realistic goals and measures of police effectiveness.