NCJ Number
97155
Date Published
1985
Length
31 pages
Annotation
Data were collected during Flint, Michigan's Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program experiment and 1 year after foot patrol had become a citywide effort, so as to compare foot and motor patrol officers' perceptions of their safety. The study aimed to determine if a particular form of policing can help diffuse fear in law enforcement.
Abstract
All 22 foot patrol officers were interviewed, as were 47 randomly selected motorized officers, during January/February 1980, 1 year after the experiment began. The 1984 followup study was based upon interviews with all 64 foot patrol officers and 50 randomly selected motorized officers. In 1984, officers were asked the same five questions pertaining to safety issues and two additional questions. Officers' responses were ranked on a Likert-type scale. T-tests were used to compare responses. In 1980, foot patrol officers felt significantly safer in the conduct of their work than motorized officers. They cited familiarity with their beat neighborhoods and residents as being responsible for their sense of security. In 1984 also, foot patrol officers felt significantly safer than motorized officers for the same reason. Foot patrol officers had a significantly stronger feeling that citizens overestimated dangers in their community. Foot patrol officers were also more confident that citizens would help them if they were in trouble, believed more than motorized officers that their patrol areas were safer than the rest of Flint, and conducted fewer pat-downs. Foot patrol officers perceived themselves to be safer on their patrols than motorized officers regardless of age, race, gender, prior police experience, or military service. Tabular data and 17 footnotes are provided.