Policing Styles and Volume Crime Reduction

Abstract

Rob Heaton is a serving police officer in Kent Police. He was awarded an M.Sc. degree in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2007. He has published several papers on the subject of the effects of policing upon crime rates. This is the first of two linked articles (the second one to be published in a later issue) that examine aspects of the relationship between the use of focused ‘policing styles’ and recorded crime rates. During the 1990s, most police forces in England and Wales underwent a period of experimentation, adopting organizational structures and processes associated with one or more named ‘policing styles’. These developments were in the main intended to reduce substantial increases in reported crime. This study examines the crime reduction results in practice. It concludes that despite widespread reductions in reported crime, these were substantially the result of a return to equilibrium trends, rather than of police action. An exception was noted in respect of thefts of motor vehicles, which appeared to be amenable to intervention by intelligence-led policing.