Resource Results
When Delaware Governor Jack Markell convened the Justice Reinvestment Task Force in the summer of 2011, the state was facing a high violent crime rate, crowded prisons, and budget shortfalls. By the time he signed the Justice Reinvestment Act (Senate Bill 226) in August 2012, Delaware had joined a growing number of states committed to instituting evidence-based practices shown to reduce recidivism, increase public safety and contain corrections costs. This brief examines the findings and… Read More
Police vehicles burn a great deal of fuel while patrolling continuously. Various approaches have been proven to significantly reduce the amount of fuel used and its cost. Hybrid vehicles typically get two-three times higher mileage per gallon than conventional vehicles and have proven viable for policing, in many cities, including New York.
In many cities, false alarms from home and business security systems number in the tens of thousands each year, waste millions of dollars of officer time, and detract from attention to reducing crimes. Options are presented on ways to substantially reduce the effects of such false alarms and the police responses to them. We analyzed experiences of Montgomery County, Maryland; Seattle, Washington; and Salt Lake City, Utah, which reduced false alarms by 66-90% and saved 10-30 police… Read More
This report identifies methods for addressing violence and disorder around bars. We find that safe drinking environments and strong community partnerships are key buffers against alcohol-related crimes. Safer drinking environments can be fostered by training bouncers in conflict resolution, ensuring bar design does not create overcrowding, and enforcing laws restricting service to intoxicated persons aggressively.
The empirical observation that a small number of micro places generate the bulk of urban crime problems has become a criminological axiom. These micro places, commonly referred to as “hot spots” of crime, have been defined as clusters of street addresses, groupings of street blocks, and collections of particular street intersections and street segments. High-activity crime places have been found in neighborhoods characterized by both low and high levels of social disadvantage.
This paper is the second in a series of three addressing the need for developing a shooting database in Rochester. The benefit from crime analysis has been seen in recent years as smart policing has come to the forefront. This paper addresses the role that databases play in crime prevention and then moves toward a focus on the need for a shooting database and what role that would play in law enforcement. In addition to providing examples of crime databases, this paper will also highlight… Read More
The aim of this essay is to discuss how the Rochester Shooting Database (RSD) can be utilized to expand knowledge on shootings and guide violence intervention programs. Gun violence is a serious problem in the United States. Every year thousands of Americans are shot or killed as a result of gun violence. The majority of shootings occur in urban areas, and a significant amount of urban shootings occur in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods where African Americans and Latinos are… Read More
Recent events have brought discussion of homicides to the forefront of national news, and as a result, many Americans have taken an interest in local, national, and international homicide data. Since the early 1990s the overall homicide rate in the United States has steadily declined. In 2011, the national homicide rate was 4.7 per 100,000 people (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2012). This rate may appear to be rather low, but it means little without a comparison. How representative… Read More
Perhaps the most dramatic social change in the last 10 years has been the increased availability and use of the Internet. There are more than 2.2 billion Internet users worldwide (Internet World Stats, 2012), and it is estimated that three quarters of the U.S. population has Internet access (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 2011). The introduction of Web 2.0 and the widespread use of social media have changed the way people access and use the Internet.
Historically, police agencies have measured their performance against a very restricted set of crime-focused indicators, such as crime rates, arrests, and response times. However, modern police officers must be prepared to take on a wide variety of roles, from problem-solver to counselor and provider of first aid, among many others. Therefore, performance measures should be multidimensional to capture the complexity inherent in modern policing.
