NCJ Number
81718
Date Published
1980
Length
91 pages
Annotation
This report represents the final evaluation of the East Providence Police Department's Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program (ICAP) in Rhode Island. The two-phase project was designed to improve the delivery of police services and better police-community relations, to upgrade the crime analysis and intelligence analysis capabilities, and to effect directed patrolling.
Abstract
The evaluation team monitored police performance through quarterly reports and direct observations of procedures, records, reports, and events. Intensive interviews were conducted with key police personnel both through interviews and while on patrol. A sample of community residents were also interviewed, and the computer systems that ICAP personnel intended to implement were explored. Results are given for the patrol, detectives, and vice survey; for the ICAP model approach used; regarding innovation diffusion and organizational management and behavior; for the labor relations survey, and for the community survey. Procedural and substantive recommendations are offered. Findings indicate that ICAP was not a panacea for the reduction of crime. The evaluation failed to find a meaningful correlation between crime and the introduction of better information processing systems. The suppression of crimes is too complex to map through ICAP or traditional preventative means. What ICAP provided was a more effective and efficient way to organize data. The study found traditional resistance to change and a political environment which had to be considered in the implementation stage. It found that the treatment of ICAP as an innovation diffusion problem reflected reality and that the effect on social systems and management has been treated too lightly in many evaluations. Future technological or procedural changes should be advanced only with the concurrent planning of social change. A few footnotes, a table, and 25 references are provided.