NCJ Number
161507
Date Published
1994
Length
69 pages
Annotation
The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority funded an evaluation of community policing reform in Aurora; referred to as the Neighborhood-Oriented Policing and Problem Solving Demonstration Project, the community policing initiative was developed to prevent criminal activity, reduce fear of crime, and increase community confidence.
Abstract
The evaluation was conducted to assess processes involved in planning and implementing neighborhood-oriented policing strategies and to estimate internal and external effects of these strategies, including their impact on police officers, neighborhood residents, and crime rates. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires, telephone surveys, archival data analysis, crime records analysis, focus group interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. As a demonstration of community policing, the Aurora project achieved only limited success. Community policing suffered due to police leadership changes, lack of direction, and lack of organizational incentives to pursue problem-solving and community engagement. Community residents noted a decline in the amount of community and police activity. Without adequate opportunity to become involved, citizen participation in crime prevention did not increase as hoped. Evaluation findings are detailed with respect to police management, police job satisfaction, attitudes toward community policing, community policing activities, neighborhood crime and disorder problems, victimization experiences, and fear of crime. References, tables, and figures