Measuring hot spots policing in non-research settings

Abstract

Hot spots policing has become a robust evidence-based strategy to address the problem of crime in U.S. cities. Today, a growing number of police departments report that they use hot spots policing to some extent in their daily operations. However, to our knowledge, only one study has been conducted to determine whether police departments have implement the strategy effectively. In our study, we used crime and stop-question-and-frisk (SQF) data from the New York Police Department (NYPD) and an innovative analytical strategy to assess (1) whether the NYPD makes significant use of hot spots policing, and (2) if yes, how much hot spots policing the department performs. Our findings showed that the NYPD uses hot spots policing in about 40%–45% of its violent crime hot spots. The implications of the study are discussed.