The Focused Enforcement Detail does not affirm the belief that more police
officers equal less crime. It is a confirmation of Micro-space policing (Hot
Spots) in which police visibility is increased and results in a statically
significant reduction in crime.
>From 1988 to 1989, University of Maryland Criminology Professor LW Sherman and
the Minneapolis Police Department conducted an experiment, testing a crime
prevention theory and determining the results of focused patrol. I was a
rookie then and I and every patrol officer were required to Hot Spot (provide a
visible deployment at a preselected known high crime location) at least once
during their shift when not answering hard/active calls for service. Each
deployment, time, and location were recorded and then compared to present and
past measurements of crime rates.
if the occasion arose, officers could take independent action to make arrests,
public contacts, traffic stops, reports, and/or other police actions typically
used to measure police performance. However, if they did so, they were
required to sign off of their Hot Spot detail and handle the other incident(s)
as needed. Only the time and place of an officer (s) visibility detail was
important to the study, not officers pro-active actions. Once the data was
collected and analyzed, the results demonstrated a modest measurable decrease
in crimes within the selected areas.
In the early 90s, Hot Spots became the de rigor for many major police
departments, because the practice produced results. As computer data analytics
advanced, the additional data of arrests and other police actions were added to
the mix, and COMPSTAT and MPD"s CODEFOR (COmputerized Deployment Focused On
Results) were used to focus patrol efforts with the intent to suppress crime.
Simply put, these programs were putting the right people, in the right places,
at the right times, doing the right things.
The practice does have its limitations. Although disagreeable, criminals are
sentient beings and learn from their and other mistakes ( arrests). As
criminals change their approach, crime and crime patterns are displaced in
several ways
Spatial: The crooks move their activity around the block.
Target: Burglars may target businesses rather than homes/ or vice versa.
Temporal: Criminals change the time they do their business.
Offense: The loot from Carjacking is better than Shoplifting
Tactical: Why shoplift when you can steal it off the semi?
It's encouraging to see old tactics still have limited success. But of
course, the real trick is never to have crime in the first place. That is not
a job for more police.
Gregory Reinhardt, Excelsior