CrimeProactive policing successful at reducing crime; role of racial bias unclear
A number of strategies used by the police to proactively prevent crimes have proved to be successful at crime reduction, at least in the short term, and most strategies do not harm communities’ attitudes toward police, finds a new report by the National Academies of Sciences. However, the committee that conducted the study and wrote the report said there is insufficient evidence to draw strong conclusions on the potential role of racial bias in the use of proactive policing strategies.
A number of strategies used by the police to proactively prevent crimes have proved to be successful at crime reduction, at least in the short term, and most strategies do not harm communities’ attitudes toward police, finds a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. However, the committee that conducted the study and wrote the report said there is insufficient evidence to draw strong conclusions on the potential role of racial bias in the use of proactive policing strategies.
“The committee felt that the lack of data on the role of racial bias in proactive policing was startling,” said David Weisburd, executive director of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University and chair of the committee. “It’s critically important that we understand not simply the impacts of proactive policing on racial outcomes, but also how race may impact the adoption of specific types of proactive policing.”
Police organizations apply proactive policing practices to prevent and reduce crime, which differs from standard or traditional reactive approaches in policing that focus primarily on responding to crime once it has occurred and on answering citizen requests for police service. In this report, the committee assessed the application and results of such proactive strategies, including their impact on crime, the reaction of communities, whether they are being used in a legal fashion, and if they are applied in a discriminatory manner.
Impact of proactive policing on crime and disorder
NAS says that overall, the committee found enough evidence to support the adoption of a number of proactive policing strategies, if the primary goal is to reduce crime. The available evidence focused on the localized impacts of crime prevention, such as specific places or individuals, and generally on short-term crime-prevention effects. Relatively little is known about whether and to what extent the strategies will have benefits at the larger jurisdictional level, for example, across an entire precinct or city or across all offenders. Furthermore, the evidence is rarely able to speak about long-term benefits. Key findings include:
