Reactive Policing Research Articles

How the Public Became the Caller: The Emergence of Reactive Policing, 1880–1970

Abstract Why is the police role so broad in the United States today? Carceral state scholars have investigated how and why policymakers have treated so many social problems as policing problems, but they have not yet recognized the degree to which the call-for-service system has marginalized political control over police strategy. This Article traces the historical sources of this arrangement through extensive archival research into its evolution. We find that over the course of the twentieth century, the rise of new communications technologies gradually shifted the power to decide which problems are proper subjects of police attention to private individuals, eventually channeling their demands through centralized call centers that had been stripped of the authority and contextual knowledge needed to govern them in a meaningful way. That process fundamentally altered the character of public oversight over policing, elevating a distinctive set of individual interests as largely unchallenged determinants of the kinds of situations that are policeable. By illustrating how sociotechnical change unintentionally reallocated the authority to define the scope of an important institution’s mandate, this case sheds new light on the factors that shape the police role and the role the public plays in defining it.

Operationalizing deployment time in police calls for service

Analyses of emergency calls for service data in the United States suggest that around 50% of dispatched police deployment time is spent on crime-related incidents. The remainder of time is spent in a social service capacity: attending well-being checks and resolving disturbances, for instance. These findings have made a considerable contribution to the discourse around public perceptions of the police and the distribution of public funds towards (or away) from law enforcement. Yet, an outstanding issue remains. No investigation has been undertaken into whether findings are robust to the different ways in which ‘time spent’ is operationalized in these studies. Using dispatch data for Amsterdam during 2019, this study compares three operationalizations of ‘time spent’. Additionally, in order to provide some context on the potential mechanisms through which these different operationalizations might yield different results, we report on dispatch numbers per incident category and provide an initial exploration into ‘multi-dispatch’ incident types. We find that general proportional breakdowns are fairly robust to the time measure used. However, for some incident categories (e.g. Health) and incident types (e.g. Shootings), analyzed in isolation, the results are not robust to the different operationalizations. We propose that the mechanism explaining this lack of robustness can be traced to the high dispatch numbers for specific incident categories and types, particularly those with an imminent threat to life.Preregistration: This study has been preregistered under the title: Scale and composition of emergency reactive police demand in Amsterdam, Netherlands (https://osf.io/qgwv6/).

“It's frustrating … I didn’t join to sit behind a desk”: Police paperwork as a source of organizational stress

Police officers are responsible for both proactive and reactive policing; however, every call for service, at a minimum, equates to an administrative process that is time-consuming and appears to distract from the ability of police officers to do their investigative and community-oriented police work. In this article, we explore the administrative processes that are paperwork as a source of organizational stress. Specifically, we draw on researcher observational field notes, focus groups, as well as interview data discussing the paperwork processes as a part of and contributing to the organizational and operational stressors experienced by, and the psychological burden and its effects on, police officers in a provincial policing agency in Canada. Results indicate not only the sheer volume of paperwork that police are responsible for, but also the extended time being spent “catching up” administratively and the psychological implications of such processes on their well-being, including, for example, decreased morale, frustration, and feeling overwhelmed.

Can the police cool down quality-of-life hotspots? A double-blind national randomized control trial of policing low-harm hotspots

AbstractSubstantial evidence suggests that focussing police resources on hotspots of crime has a discernable crime-reduction effect. However, little is known about the efficacy of proactively policing areas with higher concentrations of more common low-harm problems in society. This study evaluates the first national double-blind randomized controlled trial in which clearly identifiable hotspots (n = 488) of low-harm ‘quality-of-life’ incidents nested in 31 participating police stations were randomized to be either actively policed by any available police officer or by ‘business-as-usual’ reactive policing over a 12-month period. A series of count-based regression models show a moderate and statistically significant reduction in the number of quality-of-life incidents in treatment versus control hotspots, with more than 2,000 quality-of-life incidents prevented, without evidence of spatial displacement to street segments nearby. However, we find no diffusion of benefits in terms of other crime types within the same hotspots, which may suggest that either low- and high-harm crime hotspots are not spatially aligned with each other, that focussing police officers on one type of crime does not produce a suppression effect on other types of crime, or both. We discuss the implications of these results for crime policy and future research.

The Boys in Blue Are Watching You: The Shifting Metropolitan Landscape and Big Data Police Surveillance in the United States.

Despite decades of crime decline, police surveillance has continued to expand through a range of tactics oriented towards policing social disadvantage. Yet, despite attention to the linkages between residential inequality and policing, few studies have accounted for two intertwined structural developments since the turn of the 21st century: (1) the shift away from spatially concentrated patterns of racial segregation within urban centers towards sprawling patterns of economic segregation and (2) the turn from reactive policing towards proactive surveillance. Using the case of big data policing, we create a new measure of big data surveillance in metropolitan areas to examine how changes in segregation have affected the expansion of proactive police surveillance. In contrast to theoretical accounts emphasizing the role of police surveillance in governing economic inequality and perpetuating racial segregation, we do not find evidence that racial segregation or income inequality increase big data surveillance. Instead, much of the recent rise in big data policing is explained by increases in sprawling patterns of income segregation. These results provide new insight into the linkages between policing and residential inequality and reveal how changes in metropolitan segregation influence criminal justice surveillance in the era of big data.

From the aspirational to the tangible: Mapping key performance indicators in Australian policing

Police performance is particularly difficult to measure. Most police agencies tend to rely on traditional metrics of effectiveness (such as crime statistics and public surveys) which are recognised as being problematic by researchers and policing authorities. Policing too has shifted in recent times with a move away from reactive policing approaches towards more desirable proactive and community-orientated styles of policing. Subsequently, there is a growing body of research which proposes new and alternative methods of measuring police performance that addresses some of the problematic validity and reliability issues of the traditional metrics and incorporates these new policing styles. This study maps the key performance indicators reported by Australian policing agencies. It aims to identify what is being measured and how it is being measured. To do this, Australian policing agency annual reports were analysed both quantitatively with descriptive analysis and qualitatively using thematic analysis. Overall, the study found that although there are some attempts at incorporating new alternative metrics, policing agencies in Australia mostly rely on traditional metrics for reporting effectiveness. These findings are discussed in terms of opportunities to enhance or expand current reporting practices.

The potential of using the forensic profiles of Australian fraudulent identity documents to assist intelligence-led policing

ABSTRACT The manufacture and distribution of fraudulent identity documents (IDs) is a pervasive and prolific crime problem, enabling the activities of organized crime networks and terrorist cells. As reactive policing methods are ill-equipped to handle the transversal and repetitive nature of document fraud, in 2012 Baechler et al. suggested a complementary method that uses the systematic profiling and comparison of fraudulent IDs to identify those produced by the same source. While this method has been successful in Europe, it is yet to be implemented worldwide, and there is currently little known about the Australian fraudulent document climate. In this pilot study, 43 fraudulent IDs from Sydney-based New South Wales police stations were examined. Adapting the method used in Europe, these documents were imaged, and their visual characteristics were extracted before being organized into an excel database and manually compared. The characteristics chosen are fundamentally linked to the manufacturing process, including the printing methods and replication of security features. Of the documents examined 88% were linked to at least one other document, and five series emerged. These results suggest that the Australian document market may be structured, and that there may be prolific offenders operating at its core, much like in Europe.

Strengthening Community Policing Culture and Practice in Nigeria for Effective Crime Prevention and Detection

With the growing insecurity in the country, many commentators are beginning to question the provision of the 1999 Nigerian constitution, Chapter 2, Section 14 (2)(b), which stipulates that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. In Nigeria today, virtually 50 percent of headline news relates to some form of insecurity affecting almost every part of the country. From the Boko Haram insurgencies in the North East, to Herdsmen – Farmers crisis in the middle belt, to banditry and kidnapping in the North West. From South-South region battling militant agitation, to South-East security menace of separatist agitation, kidnapping and armed robbery. Of recent is the issues of kidnapping and banditry surfacing on highways within the South West region, one would rightly say that the centralized form of Policing structure being operated in Nigeria has completely failed. Hence, agitation for institutionalising the concept of Community Policing in Nigeria. Community Policing is a concept that emphasises proactive measures – preventing the act of crime through intelligence and community participation, rather than reactive policing. It is also principled on partnership and decentralisation of powers for effective crime fighting.

Producing race disparities: A study of drug arrests across place and race*

AbstractIn studies of race disparities in policing, scholars generally employ quantitative methodologies with the goal of determining whether race disparities exist or, in fewer instances, of ruling out correlates. Yet, lacking from theoretical and empirical efforts is an elucidation of how and why on‐the‐ground policing produces race disparities that are justified in legal, race‐neutral terms. To address this knowledge gap, I analyze officers’ self‐reported accounts of their enforcement activities, justifications, and decision‐making in a representative sample of 300 official reports of drug arrests made in St. Louis from 2009 to 2013. These accounts are analyzed across neighborhood racial contexts and arrestee race, revealing important differences that help illuminate the race disparity problem. Unlike drug arrests in White neighborhoods or of White citizens that primarily stem from reactive policing, drug arrests in Black and racially mixed neighborhoods and of Black citizens result from officers’ greater use of discretionary stops based on neighborhood conditions, suspicion of ambiguous demeanor, or minor infractions. During such stops, officers’ discovery of drug possession often results from discretionary Terry frisks or searches incident to arrests for outstanding bench warrants. These findings fill important theoretical and empirical gaps and have implications for reforms toward racially just policing.

Formal Social Control in Changing Neighborhoods: Racial Implications of Neighborhood Context on Reactive Policing

Public reports to the police are a key component of the formal social control process and have distinct interracial dynamics. This study examines the relationship between incident severity, neighborhood context, and participant race and patterns in the determination of probable cause and arrest in reactive police contacts. We utilize a complete record of police incidents in Seattle, Washington from 2008 through 2012 including information on race of reporters and targets and type of offense. These data are matched to longitudinal tract–level census data to evaluate how incident outcomes relate to neighborhood change. Results indicate that black targets are more frequently subject to arrest overall, particularly in changing neighborhoods and when reporters are white. For nuisance crimes such as public disturbances, probable cause is found more often for white reporters but less often in changing neighborhoods.

Illicit Bitcoin transactions: challenges in getting to the who, what, when and where

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the intelligence and investigatory challenges experienced by law enforcement agencies in discovering the identity of illicit Bitcoin users and the transactions that they perform. This paper proposes solutions to assist law enforcement agencies in piecing together the disparate and complex technical, behavioural and criminological elements that make up cybercriminal offending.Design/methodology/approachA literature review was conducted to highlight the main law enforcement challenges and discussions and examine current discourse in the areas of anonymity and attribution. The paper also looked at other research and projects that aim to identify illicit transactions involving cryptocurrencies and the darknet.FindingsAn optimal solution would be one which has a predictive capability and a machine learning architecture which automatically collects and analyses data from the Bitcoin blockchain and other external data sources and applies search criteria matching, indexing and clustering to identify suspicious behaviours. The implementation of a machine learning architecture would help improve results over time and would be less manpower intensive. Cyber investigators would also receive intelligence in a format and language that they understand and it would allow for intelligence-led and predictive policing rather than reactive policing. The optimal solution would be one which allows for intelligence-led, predictive policing and enables and encourages information sharing between multiple stakeholders from the law enforcement, financial intelligence units, cyber security organisations and fintech industry. This would enable the creation of red flags and behaviour models and the provision of up-to-date intelligence on the threat landscape to form a viable intelligence product for law enforcement agencies so that they can more easily get to the who, what, when and where.Originality/valueThe development of a functional software architecture that, in theory, could be used to detected suspicious illicit transactions on the Bitcoin network.

Preferential strategies for mitigating the harms of adolescent illicit drug involvement: A multicriteria decision analysis

AbstractMultidisciplinary perspectives in informing complex policies are critical, but ineffectual when diverse differences are not adequately represented. Using multicriteria analysis, potential heterogeneity of key expert preferences for 19 drug interventions in Hong Kong was examined. Significant differences in preferences were found among academics, health professionals, and law enforcers regarding drug testing, and a range of law enforcement, harm reduction, and treatment interventions. The weighted consensual preference reveals overall support for preventative and treatment strategies, with decriminalization, needle syringe programmes, reactive policing strategies, and drug testing seen as less favourable. The results assist policymakers in understanding the profound knowledge our experts possess and building robust policy that is informed by empirical evidence generated from a commonly used method in the decision sciences. Importantly, these results can inform the development of targeted institutional and criminal justice policies aimed at mitigating the adverse harms and consequences of drug involvement.

The thin blue line meets the big blue sky: perceptions of police legitimacy and public attitudes towards aerial drones

Police departments across the United States are now integrating new visual monitoring technology (e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs or ‘drones’], body cameras) into routine police practices. Despite their potential use in multiple areas of proactive and reactive policing, public attitudes toward police use of UAVs, and visual monitoring technology overall, is mixed. As an extension of previous research, the current study uses a national survey to assess how well individuals’ perceptions about police legitimacy, effectiveness, and other criminal justice attitudes predict the level of public receptivity and opposition toward police UAV use in various contexts. The implications of these findings for public policy and law enforcement practices are discussed.

Crime analysis and cognitive effects: the practice of policing through flows of data

ABSTRACTCrime analysis is the systematic analysis of crime for identifying and predicting risks and efficiently directing police resources. Adopting a social construction of technology framework, we explore the work of crime analysts to understand how they police through flows of data and how their work informs policing practices on the ground. Specifically we look at: (1) the organisational and cultural integration of crime analysis in Canada, (2) the technological support of analytic practices, and (3) the incorporation of crime analysis for policing practices. From this analysis, we argue that organisational understandings of crime analysis combined with the analytic platforms utilised have forced crime analysts to work within traditional police performance initiatives that both respond to and reinforce reactive policing practice. Crime analysis and the practice of policing through flows of data have changed the symbolic nature of policing while reaffirming traditional ways of knowing and policing.

Understanding the Limits of Technology’s Impact on Police Effectiveness

Technology has become a major source of expenditure and innovation in law enforcement and is assumed to hold great potential for enhancing police work. But does technology achieve these expectations? The current state of research on technology in policing is unclear about the links between technologies and outcomes such as work efficiencies, effectiveness in crime control, or improved police–community relationships. In this article, we present findings from a mixed-methods, multiagency study that examines factors that may mediate the connection between technology adoption and outcome effectiveness in policing. We find that police view technology through technological and organizational frames determined by traditional and reactive policing approaches. These frames may limit technology’s potential in the current reform era and cause unintended consequences.

Systematic review of Australian policing interventions to reduce alcohol-related violence — A maxillofacial perspective

Alcohol-related violence remains to be a health concern, and the oral and maxillofacial surgeons are routinely exposed to its impact on the victims and the healthcare system. At a community level, various policing interventions have been implemented to address this violent crime in and around licensed premises. Current study sought to examine the effectiveness of these interventions in Australia. Ten eligible studies, that evaluated the impact of 15 Australian policing interventions on reducing alcohol-related violence in the night-time economy, were included in this systematic review. Due to the heterogeneity of the study designs and the insufficiency of the reported data, quantitative meta-analysis of the findings was precluded. Instead, a critical narrative approach was used. Police-recorded assault rate was the primary outcome measured to assess the level of alcohol-related violence, which was influenced by the level of police duties implemented during the intervention period. The overall evidence base to support Australian policing interventions was found to be poor and was limited by the low-quality study design observed in the majority of the included studies. However, there is some evidence to suggest interventions involving proactive policing to be more effective than traditional reactive policing. There was also an increased emphasis on developing policing interventions in collaborative partnerships, demonstrating the synergistic benefits in crime prevention through community partnerships, where communities were encouraged to take ownerships of their own problems and develop targeted responses to alcohol-related violence rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Further research is required to define their effectiveness with the use of more appropriate and robust methodologies.

Sex trafficking and the role of state police within Australia

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine operational policing practice with reference to reducing sex trafficking.Design/methodology/approach– This is a qualitative study in which in-depth structured interviews were conducted with state police officers in one state of Australia.Findings– The paper reveals that state police officers have a good understanding of sex trafficking and are involved in reactive policing methods in order to reduce this crime type. The data set yields a limitation in proactive policing methods for reducing sex trafficking, primarily due to human and financial resources and the composition of state and federal laws and policing practices in Australia. Those interviewed also noted how sex trafficking can disguise itself as legitimate sex work.Research limitations/implications– The effectiveness in operational practice at the local, national and international level in reducing sex trafficking can be enhanced through a more co-ordinated response to the problem. Recognition of better communication strategies and partnership working can support a reduction in sex trafficking as well as allowing those who are trafficked the status of “victim”.Practical implications– To ensure those who are trafficked for sexual servitude are viewed and treated as victims within the law. To review how state police forces in Australia are resourced in order to proactively address sex trafficking. To ensure state police forces can engage in more proactive policing initiatives in order to prevent sex trafficking. Reflect on examples of good practice between federal and state police forces in Australia to implement a co-ordinated approach for combatting sex trafficking.Originality/value– This is one of just a few studies examining organised crime from the perspective of law enforcement personnel within Australia.

Community, intelligence-led policing and crime control

This article examines the relationship between community policing, intelligence-led policing and crime control. Whilst community and intelligence-led policing have developed as distinctive reform movements within contemporary UK policing there have been calls for the two to interact in practice. In particularly, aspects of community policing are operationalised through the frameworks of intelligence-led policing. This article unpicks the structures and processes of (community) intelligence processes in detail. It focuses on the nature of information generated from community policing; how analytical products are constructed; and the nature of the officer tasking and briefing process. It is argued that community policing was conceived, at least in part, as an alternative to traditional reactive policing styles which coalesce around patrol, rapid response to incidents and enforcement of the criminal law. However, as community policing has evolved in practice it has become firmly embedded in conventional police-centric notions of ‘efficiency’, law enforcement and crime control.

Testing a Crime Control Model: Does Strategic and Directed Deployment of Police Officers Lead to Lower Crime?

The purpose of the paper was to investigate whether implementation of a crime control model (based, in part, on the concepts of COMPSTAT) in one southern California city was effective in reducing crime. Time series regression models were fitted to data collected from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, city of Perris, for the years 2000 through 2010. Additional data were collected from three other cities that served as controls. Results showed that the program was effective in reducing crime rates in Perris. The effect remained significant even after taking into account time trends and control cities. Analysis also found that while the program was more effective in lessening total and property crime rates, it was less so for violent crime rates. It was concluded that strategic and directed policing models (e.g., COMPSTAT, hot spot policing, etc.) may be more effective in crime reduction efforts than reactive policing methods.

Policing democracy: overcoming obstacles to citizen security in Latin America

Latin America's crime rates are astonishing by any standard-the region's homicide rate is the world's highest. This crisis continually traps governments between the need for comprehensive reform and the public demand for immediate action, usually meaning iron-fisted police tactics harking back to the repressive pre-1980s dictatorships. In Policing Democracy, Mark Ungar situates Latin America at a crossroads between its longstanding form of reactive policing and a problem-oriented approach based on prevention and citizen participation. Drawing on extensive case studies from Argentina, Bolivia, and Honduras, he reviews the full spectrum of areas needing reform: criminal law, policing, investigation, trial practices, and incarceration. Finally, Policing Democracy probes democratic politics, power relations, and regional disparities of security and reform to establish a framework for understanding the crisis and moving beyond it.