Tagged: data driven policing
by Elizabeth Berger · Apr 12, 2024 11:08 am
Crime tends to be concentrated in specific areas within cities, with about 50% of crime occurring on just 5% of streets. One police strategy that can help combat this is known as “hot-spot policing,” which has been shown to reduce violent crime in multiple studies. Another factor that can help reduce crime in an area is when citizens exercise “informal social control.” Informal social control refers to the ability of community members to regulate behavior and maintain order through cohesive relationships, mutual trust, and willingness to intervene. It involves residents taking actions to prevent and address crime and disorder in their neighborhoods.
One common assumption is that the chatoic and disordered nature of high-crime hot spots renders residents incapable of playing a significant role in crime prevention. However, a new study conducted in Baltimore seems to reveal otherwise.
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by Elizabeth Berger · Feb 24, 2022 3:40 pm
Amidst a surge in crime over the last two years, including homicide spikes in both 2020 and 2021, the national conversation is finally moving back toward re-funding the police. On May 8, 2021, President Biden submitted his FY22 budget proposal, which allocated $1.3 billion to law enforcement agencies. According to the budget request, the money would support community policing programs, specialized training and resources, and the hiring of new officers. In a statement made on February 3rd, 2022, the White House re-iterated this point and further urged Congress to direct more funds toward community policing efforts and to provide local departments with federal tools and resources to help them address violent crime. This is a step in the right direction, but given how vague the language is, it is hard to predict how effective his plan will be.
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by Elizabeth Berger · Jul 29, 2021 1:32 pm
On July 26, 2021, the National Police Foundation (NPF) announced a partnership with the Manchester, NH Police Department (MPD) to implement a data-driven policing approach known as CompStat360 (CS360) to target rising gun crime. The approach allows agencies to be more data-driven in their police strategy, particularly through the use of crime mapping, which shows ‘hot spots’ or clusters of crime in an area. This information greatly helps police officials, city leaders, and community activists decide which markets and places to target. The approach relies on geographic information systems (GIS) technology which uses GPS coordinates to track crime.
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by Elizabeth Berger · Jul 16, 2021 9:44 am
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on nearly every aspect of our day-to-day lives, ranging from economic distress, to disrupted schooling, and public health impacts. Relatedly, the pandemic has impacted crime in different ways, but there is still a lot of confusion and disagreement regarding this relationship. On its face, the onset of the pandemic was initially correlated with large drops in many types of crime. However, this finding comes with a caveat: while overall crime rates are lower than they have been in previous years, homicides and shootings are higher than normal, and this trend appears to be continuing into 2021. Continue reading . . .
by Elizabeth Berger · Jul 1, 2021 3:56 pm
In the past few years, the use of force by police officers has been getting increasingly more attention in the United States and elsewhere, with many advocates pushing for widespread reform in this regard. Unfortunately though, research on police use of force still fails to provide answers to many important questions. A recently published article in the British Psychological Society’s Urgent Issues and Prospects series summarizes the most urgent issues in police use of force based on knowledge from police scholars and practitioners. The article outlines key considerations for advancing police use of force research, many of which center around police de-escalation and use of force training. Continue reading . . .
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