Effective Policing through Regulatory Control

Abstract

Local police have long assumed some responsibility for enforcing state and local government administrative regulations, such as those governing licenses and permits. In recent years, local police have broadened their use of regulatory authority to make it an integral part of their crime and disorder control efforts, doing so either directly or through the cooperation of other local and state regulatory agencies. This shift in police legal orientation, from predominantly criminal toward administrative, has been promoted and supported through problem-oriented policing and situational crime prevention frameworks. This article reviews applications of police regulatory control to specific crime and disorder problems, the mechanisms by which they work, and the possible ramifications for police administration and police intragovernmental and extragovernmental relations.