Texas Regional Community Policing Institute
Quantifying Quality Workshop
Series
1998
Sam Houston State University
Myth: The Police Make No
Difference
• Borne first of the lack of clear
relationship between staffing levels
and crime rates
• Reinforced by the Kansas City
Preventive Patrol Experiment and the
Rand Criminal Investigation Study.
Why the Drop in Crime?
• Social-demographic
Trends
• Economic Conditions
• Drug Use Prevalence
• Incarceration Rates
• Police Programs.
Community Policing Institute Theme:
Crime-Specific Policing
•
•
•
•
•
Clearly defined intervention strategies
Aimed at particular offenses
Committed by particular offenders
At specific places
At specific times
PROACTIVE, TARGETED
ENFORCEMENT
Statewide UCR Rate
8000
7500
Rate
7000
6500
6000
5500
5000
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
Year
1995
1996
1997
Texas Crime Rate by Offense
O ffe nse
Murde r
Rape
Robbe ry
Aggravate d
Viole nt Total
Burglary
The ft
Motor Ve hicle
Prope rty Total
TOTAL
1997
1995
1995-97
6.9
41.9
159.5
403.8
612.1
9.0
45.5
179.8
429.3
663.7
-23.3%
-7.9%
-11.3%
-5.4%
-7.8%
1,050.6
3,372.9
531.6
4,955.1
5,567.2
1,068.3
3,447.3
548.6
5,064.1
5,684.5
-2.9%
0.0%
-5.2%
-1.3%
-2.1%
Why Quantify?
• We should be able to
better answer the
question: What
difference do the
police make?
Reduction in Robbery
• Location code?(bars,
convenience stores,
motels, residence)
Reduction in Aggravated
Assault
• Victim - Offender
Relationship?
(Spouse, parent,
sibling, acquaintance,
neighbor, stranger)
Reduction in Auto Theft
• Vehicle types, recovery
circumstances
Trends in Theft
• Property classification
(bicycles, computer
hardware, credit cards,
firearms, jewelry,
merchandise, money,
office equipment,
electronics, tools)
Beat Management
• Beat management entails analysis of crime and incident
trends
• Developing problem-oriented approaches to crime
reduction and call for service control
• Identifying an array of possible interventions
• Implementing proactive endeavors.
• A beat manager does not have “free patrol time”. The
cynical term substituted for neighborhood oriented
policing - nobody on patrol - is indeed implemented,
nobody is merely on patrol.
• Beat management requires a full workday of
deliberative targeted interventions.
Beat Managers
• A beat manager is responsible for knowing about and
acting upon issues of public safety, public order, and
quality of life in neighborhoods. A beat manager
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
has a college degree,
is articulate,
can both identify and solve problems,
is committed to a career as a beat manager
is a mediator in conflict resolution situations
is capable of conducting investigations
is committed to alternatives to arrest,
but knows how to say, “You’re under arrest.
• What is most distinctive from the past, however, is
analytic and problem solving abilities.
Beat Management Module
Programmed in Microsoft Access, the
Community Policing Beat Management
Module possesses components such as
information on beat problem locations,
incident summaries by type of incident by
beat/neighborhood, directories of
community services/resources by
district/beat, and directories of persons of
importance to the police by
beat/neighborhood.
Beat Management Module
Requirements
• Operates directly with
SHSU’s CRIMES
• Formatting is sufficient
for data bases with Open
Data Base Connectivity
• Programming required
for legacy systems.
Workshop Theme
Some Qualitative Elements
Cannot Be Quantified, But
Quantification In Detail Can
Measure Some Forms Of Quality