NCJ Number
206674
Date Published
2004
Length
59 pages
Annotation
This first in a series of evaluations of police operations by the New South Wales (NSW) Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Australia) assessed the process and outcome of a project intended to reduce breaking-and-entering and motor-vehicle-theft offenses in three NSW patrol areas by increasing the collection of forensic evidence at crime scenes and then devoting more resources to criminal investigation based on this evidence.
Abstract
The operation, code-named Vendas, anticipated achieving its goals by increasing the absolute risk of apprehension for the targeted offenses and by improving the swiftness with which those who commit the targeted offenses are apprehended. Three primary Vendas strategies were implemented. First, evidence collectors were assigned to attend all the crime scenes of the targeted offenses. Second, police in each of the three participating local area commands focused on reducing the time between the collection of fingerprints and DNA information and the dissemination of a forensic identification to police personnel. Third, police assigned high priority to investigating the suspects identified through fingerprint and DNA analyses. Several other strategies were also implemented to increase the risk of apprehension. The evaluation assessed the impact of Vendas on recorded arrest and crime rates as well as the effectiveness of the operation's implementation. Evaluation data were obtained from a number of sources that included written materials prepared by police, field notes prepared during the course of the operation, indepth interviews with key informants, and quantitative data from both the forensic and police databases. The evaluation compared data for the targeted offenses for a few months before the Vendas operation and several months after its initiation. There was no evidence that the volume of targeted offenses decreased in any of the participating patrol areas as a consequence of Vendas; nor did the analyses reveal any increase in the rate of arrest for these types of crimes. The operation did not sufficiently increase identification rates to produce measurable changes in arrest rates. Evaluation limitations that could have influenced the findings are noted, and the findings are discussed in terms of future improvement in managing and evaluating complex police operations similar to Vendas. Topics addressed include the importance of establishing appropriate measures to gauge the impact of an operation, appropriate selection of trial sites, the early involvement of evaluators, and the documentation of a comprehensive project plan to ensure that all aspects of the operation are implemented in a timely and efficient manner. 13 figures, 5 tables, 20 notes, 23 references, and a glossary of terms