Patrol Procedures
Chapter 3
Traditional Methods
• Administrative Activities
– Activity logs, meetings, traffic studies
• Officer Initiated Activities
– Traffic stops, citizen contacts, business contacts
• Assigned calls for service
– 911 calls, report calls, civil issues - reports
• Follow-up contacts
– With victim – citizen or business owner
Random Patrol
• The police officer patrols a designated
geographic area.
• Beat assignment
• Dept. procedures dictate whether the initial
responding officer is responsible for follow-up
investigation
Rapid Response to Citizens’ 911 calls
• The police officer receives a call from the
police dispatcher, then responds to the call.
Retroactive Investigation of Past
Crimes by Detectives
• If the call involves a crime, the police officer
conducts a preliminary investigation and often
refers the case to a detective who then
conducts a follow up investigation of the
crime
• Patrol takes the initial report and all follow-up
is done by detectives
Kansas City Study
• First attempt to actually test the effectiveness
of random routine patrol
• During 1972-73, Kansas City Department
conducted an experiment to test the effects of
routine preventive control. This year long
experiment has been both influential and
controversial.
K.C. Study Format
• Fifteen patrol beats in Kansas City’s South Patrol
were used.
• Five of those beats were assigned to a control
group with no changes in normal patrol staffing
or tactics.
• Five other beats were chosen as reactive beats,
and all preventive patrolling was eliminated.
• The reactive beats and the proactive beats were
all experimental groups.
K.C. Study Format
• Outside patrol units handled calls in the reactive beats,
and units left the beats once they had handled the
calls.
• During the experiment all activities within the 15 beats
was monitored.
• Prior to the outset of the experiments researchers
collected data on reported crime, arrests, traffic
accidents, response times, citizen attitudes, citizen and
business victimization for each of the 15 beats.
• No one in the community was advised during the
entire year of the experiment
Kansas City Study Outcome
• Conclusions:
• Adding or subtracting police patrols from an area
made NO difference in the community.
• No change in crime.
• No change in citizen fear of crime.
• No change in community attitude toward police.
• No change in police response time.
• No change in traffic accidents.
Kansas City Study
• It had been commonly believed that putting
more officers on patrol would cause a
decrease in crime, and taking away police
would cause an increase in crime. The Kansas
City Study demonstrated this was wrong.
Kansas City Study
• James Q. Wilson: “…All it shows is that changes in
the amount of random preventive patrol in
marked cars does not, by itself, seem to
affect…how much crime occurs or how safe
people feel.”
• Joseph D. McNamara: “…the experiment seemed
to show that police officers uncommitted time(responding to calls or self-initiated police time)
which is approximately 50%, could be used more
effectively.”
Patrol Options
Patrol
• Beat assignment/responsibility
• Drive your beat at the beginning of your shift
• Building checks
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New businesses – contact info, site review
Open door report
Lights – on or off normally
Reflection off glass
Special attention checks – beginning/end of shift
Vacation homes
Road construction – for you, FD & EMS
Construction sites – burglary targets
Patrol
• Calls from previous shift or since you last
worked
• Hot Spots
• Events/Gatherings – planned or impromptu
• Bail checks
Team Policing
• Used prior to Community Policing
• Shift commander has autonomy to run their
shift
• Working with the same officers, supervisors
on the same shift with the same days off
• Beat assignments are generally the same
Plainclothes Assignment
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Useful for maintaining visual contact
Recon info
Embedded in crowds
Identification to other officers
Conversing with uniformed officers
– Let the undercover officer initiate conversation
Surveillance
• Keeping a person, place or object under
observation in order to identify an individual,
develop information, determine relationships
• Purposes:
– Gather evidence to arrest or get search warrant
– Locate suspects, wanted persons or
runaways/missing persons
– Gather info for interview/interrogation
– Build credibility of informants
– Determine relationships
Specialized Enforcement Team
• Tactical Enforcement Unit
• Crime Reduction Unit
• Separated from regular patrol operations
• Responsible for addressing specific problems
• Could be in uniform or plainclothes
Decoy Operation
• Officer takes on role
– Prostitute
• Deering Oaks
• Deering Street
– Robbery victim
– Car with valuables
• Requires uniformed back up
Sting Operation
• Involve using various undercover methods to
apprehend thieves and recover stolen
property.
• Sting operations can account for a large
number or arrests and the recovery of a
significant amount of stolen property.
• Pawn shop
• Raffle winner – to clear warrants
Predictive Policing
• Based on data analysis
– Idea taken from retailers like Walmart & Amazon
– Walmart – storm = duct tape, bottled water and
strawberry Pop-Tarts
• Less reactive
Stake Out
• A stakeout consists of a group of officers who
conceal themselves in a or about a location
waiting for a crime to occur or a suspect to
arrive
• Fixed surveillance
• Starbucks opening