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IJPSM 12 (2010) 1

Generating and using community intelligence: the case of neighbourhood policing
Karen Bullock

This paper examines the role that community-generated information plays in ¿neighbourhood policing¿ ¿ a key component of the UK police reform agenda. The neighbourhood policing agenda is concerned with the delivery of a consistent presence of dedicated neighbourhood teams which should be visible and accessible to the community. However, it also calls for the generation of community intelligence which should be used for local problem-solving and should be incorporated into National Intelligence Model (NIM) tasking. At the time of writing, the principle of incorporating information generated from the public into policing intelligence and priority setting thus has strong resonance, at least at the level of rhetoric of policy and practice. It is contended that difficult questions are posed in thinking through what it means to consult with the ¿public¿, the nature of community-generated information and how it is translated into operational decisions and resource deployment. This paper explores the conceptual foundations of neighbourhood policing ¿ which are found in reassurance policing, problem-oriented policing and the National Intelligence Model. It then examines the current mechanisms for generating community information, prioritising problems, and delivering responses as they are applied in neighbourhood policing. It finishes with a critical discussion of the concept and practice of generating and using community information for setting local policing priorities.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 12

Exploring the influence of race relations and public safety concerns on public support for racial profiling during traffic stops
George Higgins, Shaun Gabbidon and Gennaro Vito

The purpose of the present study was to explore hypotheses related to the influence of race relations and perceptions of safety on public opinion regarding racial profiling in traffic stops. Using a representative sample of the United States of America, our results indicate that views regarding race relations influenced public opinion on racial profiling in traffic stops, but perceptions of safety did not influence this view.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 23

(Looking) Back to the Future: using space¿time patterns to better predict the location of street crime
Lisa Tompson and Michael Townsley

Crime analysts attempt to identify regularities in police recorded crime data with a central view of disrupting the patterns found. One common method fordoing so is hotspot mapping, focusing attention on spatial clustering as a route to crime reduction (Chainey & Ratcliffe, 2005; Clarke & Eck, 2003). Despite the widespread use of this analytical technique, evaluation tools to assess its ability to accurately predict spatial patterns have only recently become available to practitioners (Chainey, Tompson, & Uhlig, 2008). Crucially, none has examined this issue from a spatio-temporal standpoint. Given that the organisational nature of policing agencies is shift based, it is common-sensical to understand crime problems at this temporal sensitivity, so there is an opportunity for resources to be deployed swiftly in a manner that optimises prevention and detection. This paper tests whether hotspot forecasts can be enhanced when time-of-day information is incorporated into the analysis. Using street crime data, and employing an evaluative tool called the Predictive Accuracy Index (PAI), we found that the predictive accuracy can be enhanced for particular temporal shifts, and this is primarily influenced by the degree of spatial clustering present. Interestingly, when hotspots shrank (in comparison with the all-day hotspots), they became more concentrated, and subsequently more predictable. This is meaningful in practice; for if crime is more predictable during specific timeframes, then response resources can be used intelligently to reduce victimisation.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 41

Police and the reclamation of public places: a study of MacArthur Park in Los Angeles
William H. Sousa and George L. Kelling

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, MacArthur Park ¿ a 40-acre public park located near downtown Los Angeles ¿ was widely known to be one of the largest open-air drug markets in Los Angeles. The Alvarado Corridor Initiative, a police-led initiative developed in 2003, was designed to address crime and disorderly behaviour in MacArthur Park through a combination of problem-solving, order-maintenance, and situational crime prevention efforts. This paper assesses the impact of the Alvarado Corridor Initiative using information from interviews and focus groups with neighbourhood residents, businesspeople, police officers, and other individuals familiar with MacArthur Park. The results suggest that many of the problems in MacArthur Park have been resolved and that the park experienced a turnaround that can be linked to the implementation of the Alvarado Corridor Initiative. In assessing the effectiveness of the Alvarado Corridor Initiative, this paper also provides a commentary on the evolution of public places in the United States and the role that the police can serve in terms of helping to preserve those public places.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 55

An empirical study of intelligence strategy implementation
Petter Gottschalk and Yngve Sommerseth Gudmundsen

Strategy implementation suffers from a general lack of academic attention. The need for improved implementation of strategies in law enforcement and policing has been emphasised by both scholars and practitioners. Implementation is important for four reasons. First, the failure to carry out a strategy can cause lost opportunities, duplicated efforts, incompatible organisational units and wasted resources. Second, the extent to which a strategy meets its objectives is determined by implementation. Third, the lack of implementation leaves police officers dissatisfied and reluctant to continuedoing strategic planning work. Finally, the lack of implementation creates problems establishing and maintaining priorities in future strategic planning. In this empirical study, implementation of intelligence strategy is studied in a causal relationship with organisation structure and organisation culture. It is found that a knowledge organisation structure has a significant positive influence on the extent of strategy implementation.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 69

Examining the link between the forensic quality and customer service quality of police call centre interviews
David G. Leeney and Katrin Mueller-Johnson

Police call centre performance is currently assessed using private sector performance measures such as call answer time and customer satisfaction. Police communications, however, place a higher value on the accuracy and efficiency of the caller/call handler interaction than do commercial organisations. This is because the police must also establish, maintain and develop, with the caller, the basis for action to protect the public or bring offenders to justice, in light of the caller¿s needs, the policing context and resources available at the time. The existing police performance measures for call centre assessment may therefore be inadequate when examined from a forensic perspective. This research fills a gap in the current literature by establishing if a normative evaluation of the police/citizen/call centre interaction was sufficiently linked to the forensic quality of the interview to make the need to secondarily measure forensic quality redundant. This question was explored through an analysis of interview data drawn from two sources: external secondary data relating to service quality and data coded by the researcher relating to forensic quality. Forensic quality of the call was assessed with a newly developed instrument. The research found that real world call centre interviews varied both in terms of service and forensic quality. Furthermore, service quality and forensic quality were statistically unrelated, which means that it did not follow that a call delivering good customer service also delivered a forensically sound call. The implications of this finding for police practice are discussed.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 81

Policing, safety and security in public assembly facilities
Steve Frosdick

This article explores how ¿policing¿, in its widest sense, seeks to maintain public safety and security in the places where people gather to view events. The paper begins by clarifying its setting in public assembly facilities and conceiving of ¿policing¿ as ¿almost anything done by anyone who controls other people¿ (Waddington, 2007). The paper goes on to show how the long history of disasters and disorder in such facilities means that they have to be ¿policed¿ and outlines the various bodies involved in ¿policing¿ them. The paper then discusses the concepts of ¿safety¿ and ¿security¿. ¿Safety¿ starts with structural design and maintenance to prevent fire or collapse. It manages capacities, ingress and egress in complex space. It also deals with aspects of human behaviours, emergencies and evacuations. ¿Security¿, on the other hand, addresses the prevention and detection of crime, the terrorist threat and the maintenance of public tranquillity. The paper seeks to differentiate the terms ¿safety¿ and ¿security¿ with reference to four alternative models. Two forms of the integrated whole in which ¿security¿ is conceived as a subset of ¿safety¿, or vice versa, are outlined and commended as best practice. However, the historical practice and current policy reasons why ¿safety¿ and ¿security¿ have been treated as either separate or overlapping concepts are also explored. The discussion refers to various facility disasters to illustrate the serious consequences when policing policy and practice overlooks ¿safety¿ or allows ¿security¿ and ¿safety¿ to get out of balance.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 90

An exploration of the juxtaposition of professional and political accountability in local law enforcement management
Casey LaFrance and Jennifer M. Allen

This study focuses on one arena of public administration in which the balancing act between various accountability considerations is especially visible: local law enforcement management, and one of the many accountability conflicts that law enforcement CEOs face: the intersection of political and professional accountability streams. There are two guiding questions in this study. First, when faced with a choice between political and professional accountability, how do county sheriffs and municipal police chiefs act? Next, what factors do these managers believe to be crucial in the development of their officers¿ use of professional discretion? This study provides a preliminary glimpse of local law enforcement managers¿ responses to these questions. Consistent with the literature on officer discretion, these managers¿ responses cite five factors that affect the development of discretion for new recruits: (1) experience, (2) formal training, (3) community norms, (4) external systemic actors, and (5) peer influence and mentorship conducted in the context of the informal organisation. Analysis of these managers¿ responses indicates that, in the aggregate, professional autonomy is more highly prized than political deference in each type of department. These findings question the conventional wisdom that suggests sheriffs are less professionally accountable than their police chief counterparts.

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IJPSM 12 (2010) 119

Felonious line-of-duty officer deaths (1995¿1999): the impact of tenure and age
Kasey A. Tucker-Gail, Donna Selman, James R. Kobolt and Tara Hill

This article examines officer age and employment tenure variables in the FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted summary from 1995 to 1999. During this time frame, 309 incidents of felonious officer deaths were reported to the FBI. The purpose of this paper is to identify patterns in the data for application within law enforcement when considering training needs over the life cycle of an officer's career, and to conduct original, exploratory research in the field. The research concludes that the combination of 0¿4 years of experience combined with the ages 30¿39 years was particularly deadly for the years 1995¿1999. Finally, based on the findings, considerations for hiring, training and data collection are made.

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Links to other issues

Volume 4 (2002) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 5 (2003) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 6 (2004) :   1   2   3

Volume 7 (2005) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 8 (2006) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 9 (2007) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 10 (2008) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 11 (2009) :   1   2   3   4

Volume 12 (2010) :   1   2   3

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