NCJ Number
215511
Journal
Police Quarterly Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2006 Pages: 73-99
Date Published
March 2006
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article describes and analyzes a covert police drug trafficking interdiction in the Brightwood neighborhood of Indianapolis, IN.
Abstract
Results indicated that in comparison to the Westside control neighborhood, crime declines were more pronounced in the Brightwood neighborhood that received the drug trafficking interdiction. One exception was noted: calls for service (CFS) for drug activity actually increased in the neighborhood site with the most intense drug interdiction while the neighborhood that received no interdiction experienced a decline in drug CFS during the same period. One possible explanation is that before the interdiction, residents of the Brightwood interdiction neighborhood were afraid to report suspected drug activity. Long-term findings indicated very little decay in the crime declines in the Brightwood interdiction neighborhood after 2 years in comparison to the Westside control neighborhood. The findings suggest that even covert police interdictions can send a message to the community that drug activity will not be tolerated, leading to emboldened citizens who are more willing to report drug activities to police. The interdiction evaluation used a pre-post multiple time series research design that compared a non-equivalent control neighborhood (Westside) to the police drug trafficking interdiction neighborhood (Brightwood) in terms of CFS for various crime types during the time period April 1998 through April 2001. Statistical data analysis included the t-test calculations. Tables, figures, notes, references