NCJ Number
59804
Date Published
1978
Length
13 pages
Annotation
A SURVEY OF SEVERAL INNOVATIVE PROJECTS IN THE FIELDS OF TRAFFIC SAFETY, POLICE PATROL, AND BURGLARY PREVENTION FINDS THAT RESULTS ARE FREQUENTLY NOT CONSISTENT WITH EXPECTATIONS. THIS IS WHY EVALUATION IS NEEDED.
Abstract
TWO LARGE-SCALE CHANGES IN TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT HAVE BEEN EVALUATED SYSTEMATICALLY. THE CONNECTICUT CRACKDOWN ON SPEEDING INITIATED AT THE END OF 1955 REDUCED TRAFFIC FATALITIES BUT NOT AS MUCH AS GROSS FIGURES WOULD INDICATE. THE CRACKDOWN WAS INITIATED BECAUSE OF A PEAK IN TRAFFIC DEATHS AND THE NUMBER WOULD HAVE PROBABLY DROPPED WITHOUT POLICE INTERVENTION. A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF NEWSPAPER PUBLICITY ON RESIDENTIAL SPEEDING FOUND THAT PUBLICITY ALONE OR RANDOM ENFORCEMENT ALONE HAD LITTLE EFFECT BUT THAT PUBLICIZED ENFORCEMENT RESULTED IN A DECLINE. ONE OF THE LARGEST AND PERHAPS MOST SURPRISING EVALUATIONS OF PATROL WAS THE KANSAS CITY, MO., PREVENTIVE PATROL EXPERIMENT. IT FOUND THAT NEITHER PATROL FREQUENCY NOR PATROL STYLE AFFECTED THE INCIDENCE OF CRIME. THIS STUDY HAD SEVERAL SHORTCOMINGS WHICH WERE REMEDIED IN THE DESIGN OF A NASHVILLE, TENN., EXPERIMENT. IN NASHVILLE, SATURATION PATROL DID NOT AFFECT THE NUMBER OF DAYTIME CRIMES BUT SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED NIGHTTIME CRIMES, ESPECIALLY ASSAULTS AGAINST PERSONS. NASHVILLE ALSO INSTITUTED A SPECIALIZED BURGLARY PATROL. GROUND PATROL DID NOT REDUCE THE NUMBER OF CRIMES. HELICOPTER PATROL DID, BUT ONLY AS LONG AS THE HELICOPTER WAS PATROLLING AND ONLY IN AREAS WHERE IT WAS CONTINUALLY VISIBLE. A SAN DIEGO, CALIF., STUDY FOUND THAT 'FIELD INTERROGATIONS,' WHICH INVOLVE QUESTIONING CITIZENS WHEN THERE IS SUSPICION OF CRIME, DECREASED JUVENILE OFFENSES. THE IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATION IS DISCUSSED. REFERENCES DOCUMENT EACH STUDY. (GLR)