Kansas City police will return to neighborhood foot patrols in a pilot program.
I advocated they start doing this a couple years ago on this forum.
Philadelphia has 250 foot patrol officers in 60 troubled neighborhoods. Violent crime dropped 22 percent during the first summer of the program in 2009, according to their research partners at Temple University. The researchers accounted for possible displacement of some crime and still estimated that the foot patrols prevented 53 violent crimes that summer.
The reason foot patrols help so much is because the police get to know the people living on the blocks, and develop a personal relationship with them. After a period of adjustment, people start trusting them because they know them personally. Then they start giving information that is helpful. Police learn who in the neighborhoods are troublemakers, who is at risk of joining gangs, who has bad parents, which houses have recently become vacant, and when certain activities occur.
There is also a significant effect on the criminals as it's harder to get away with things when a cop is walking around all the time, and you never know from where they might be watching. A car is easier to spot than some cop behind a tree.
A cop on the street walking is more likely to hear domestic disputes coming from open doors of houses than if they were in a car. A lot of these chronic abuse situations never get called in. Kids also feel safer when they know the beat cop. Cops are better able to identify which kids are getting bullied coming home from school, etc.
When they put cops back walking beats in NYC, it had a tremendous effect on crime, and crime has dropped in NYC ever since. It made the city liveable again for many people, and the effect on some neighborhoods was remarkable.
FangKC wrote:
When they put cops back walking beats in NYC, it had a tremendous effect on crime, and crime has dropped in NYC ever since. It made the city liveable again for many people, and the effect on some neighborhoods was remarkable.
I still love the idea of cops on the streets and in establishing relationships with the community, but as mentioned in Freakonomics, crime went down at a strikingly similar rate everywhere in the country at almost the exact same time, not just in places like NYC with increased police presence. The cops on the streets are often cited by Guiliani as the reason for the decline in crime, but there were a number of factors in play that combined with that effort.
My buddy who is a cop told me that the foot patrolers will be made up of all rookies coming out of the academy and will be placed in only the "toughest" hoods.
Hopefully it's successful enough that they decide to expand it.
"It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic." -- Ben Franklin
"It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic." -- Ben Franklin
This is going to sound like the most superficial thing ever (because it kind of is), but this adds an "actual city" vibe to the urban core. Hopefully this helps out with violent crime, and doesn't result in the stop and frisk policy that has run rampant in NYC (mostly targeting black males).
FangKC wrote:
On another note, last week two police officers rode through my neighborhood (North Indian Mound in the Old NE) on horseback.
Stopped and yakked with them while they were up at the Mound. Learned that long time Officer and Mounted Patrol Officer Chuck Porch retired on Friday.
Very cool the Mounted guys ride through the hood every now and again.
We did a story on this last week and will have an update out on Tuesday on this. http://northeastnews.net/pages/?p=5150#more-5150
Just not sure how two rookies will fare together. Think they need a veteran with em - but time will tell.
