NCJ Number
213333
Date Published
2006
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This report presents findings from an evaluation of England's National Reassurance Policing Programme (NRPP) between 2003/04 and 2004/05, which aimed to improve public confidence in policing through the cooperative involvement of police and other government entities with local communities in identifying and addressing priority crime and disorder issues in neighborhoods.
Abstract
The evaluation found a positive change in public perceptions of crime in all 10 NRPP sites evaluated. This was not confirmed, however, in actual statistics on recorded crime. Only one of the sites showed a significant reduction in total crime. Five of the sites had significant reduction in burglary and vehicle theft, but only one of these sites had targeted these crime types for intervention. Fear of crime declined significantly across all sites; however, the British Crime Survey of 2005 showed a similar reduction in fear of crime nationwide. Other significant positive changes in the sites were a decrease in perceptions of risk of victimization, improvement in public confidence in the police, and improvement in the perception that the police were cooperating with the local community. The 10 sites were not matched with control sites, which means that the changes reported cannot be directly attributed to the NRPP at the sites. Comparisons were made between the number of recorded crimes in the site in the 12 months before and after implementation of the NRPP. Data obtained from the British Crime Survey, a nationwide victimization survey, showed site residents' perceptions of antisocial behavior, fear of crime, risk of victimization, and public confidence in the police. 1 table and 6 references