The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Patrol Effectiveness in Violent Crime Hotspots

Citation

Carter, J.W. (2012), "The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Patrol Effectiveness in Violent Crime Hotspots", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 35 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2012.18135aaa.002

The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Patrol Effectiveness in Violent Crime Hotspots

The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Police Patrol Effectiveness in Violent Crime Hotspots

Article Type: Perspectives on policing From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 35, Issue 1

Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Travis Taniguchi, Elizabeth Groff and Jennifer WoodCriminology2011Vol. 49pp. 795-831

This article examines and further expands the research on the crime reduction effects of foot patrols. Ratcliffe and colleagues (2011) note that for many years communities, police administrators, and police officers themselves have believed neighborhood foot patrols would deter and decrease crime. However, the research examining the effectiveness of foot patrol has been at best mixed. The authors note that perhaps the reason for the mixed results stems from the unrealistic expectation of what foot patrols could actually prevent, in addition to ineffective geographic deployment of these resources (e.g, foot patrol cannot be effective where there is little or no crime).

The authors in conjunction with the top administration from the Philadelphia Police Department randomly assigned newly hired officers to one of 60-foot patrol beats. The beats were designated by spatially plotting the location of crime from multiple years prior to the study; as is typical a small number of locations, hotspots, were found to account for a large percentage of the crime. Agency administration and researchers examined the hotspots locations and created 120-foot patrol beats including at least one of these locations. The Philadelphia Police Department had resources to staff 60 of the foot beats with a team of officers for sixteen hours per day five days per week for a period of three months. The officers were provided with a one-week introduction to the beat, but were not provided with specific instructions or policing style mandates from agency administrators.

The results from the study initially indicated there was no significant difference between the treatment areas and the control areas, suggesting no effect of carefully implemented foot patrol programs. However, when the authors disaggregated the effects of the foot patrol according to pre-intervention levels of violent crime, a strange effect emerged. It seems the foot patrols showed significant crime reductions in beats that were at or above the 60th percentile in violent crime prior to the intervention. In other words the foot patrols worked, but only for the locations with the worst crime problems prior to the intervention. The authors indicate that the results from this study may breathe new life into foot patrols with a more nuanced understanding that they are only effective in relatively small locations with high levels of violence. The authors also note a positive reception by community members to the presence of the officers in the neighborhoods; such that when they ended people were calling the department asking why the patrols had been discontinued. The authors suggest that if the crime reduction benefits along with the increased support by the community can be replicated, foot patrols may serve as a viable method for effectively reducing crime and improving police community relations.

Jon MaskalyUniversity of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA