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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:49 am
Time: 1:49 am
Results for automated vehicle locator
1 results foundAuthor: Weisburd, David Title: The Dallas AVL Experiment: Evaluating the Use of Automated Vehicle Locator Technologies in Policing Summary: Law enforcement agencies lack specific information describing where police officers patrol when not responding to calls for service. Instead they have snapshots of events that are handled by police such as the locations of crime reports, arrests, traffic citations, and pedestrian stops. While computerized crime mapping has enabled "smart policing" and police have become more scientific in the ways in which they respond to crime (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2010; Robinson, 2011), police agencies still have little ability to assess the effectiveness of their deployment strategies in relationship to their goals. Our study sought to examine these two key gaps in the advancement of recent police innovations. If the police have knowledge about where patrol resources are concentrated in a police agency, can police Commanders more successfully manage broad patrol resources? Within the context of a Compstat model, can they ensure that crime hot spots gain increased levels of patrol? Finally, if such knowledge were available to the police will that help them to prevent crime? We think that the answers to these questions are key to the advancement of policing. Our study is the first we know of to test these questions directly. Since the early 1990s, hot spots policing has emerged as an important policing strategy. Sherman and Weisburd (1995) coined the term and argued that the police should not water down the dosage of police patrol across entire beats, but should focus it upon the specific places where crime was concentrated. While police scholars now agree widely that preventive patrol over larger areas is not effective (Weisburd & Eck, 2004; Bayley, 1994), the introduction of automated vehicle locator (AVL) technology allowed us to see whether provision of detailed information on actual patrol dosage to police managers would allow for more effective allocation of patrol in beats and following this significant reductions in crime. We were also able to examine these questions for crime hot spots identified during Compstat meetings. We used a blocked randomized experimental design to examine these questions. First, we used trajectory analysis to identify four groups of beats with similar crime trajectories. Each of the beats within a trajectory group was randomly allocated to treatment or control. Commanders received information on the measured deployment levels (the amount of hours of vehicle presence as measured by an Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) system) received by the treatment beats but not the control beats. In addition, they received AVL measured deployment information about Compstat hot spots (those identified for specific deployment strategies) in the treatment areas but not in the control areas. At the beat level, access to AVL measured deployment information led Commanders to request significantly higher amounts of patrol presence but did not result in an increase in actual patrol levels. At the hot spot level, it is important to note that our unit of analysis is no longer the same as our randomization unit. Thus, we interpret these results with caution. At the hot spot level, AVL does not lead Commanders to request higher levels of patrol, but it did lead to higher actual levels of patrol at those places. Also, in contrast to the beat level findings, we find treatment hot spots have about a 20 percent relative "decline" in crime. The Dallas (Texas) AVL Experiment provides important information to improve our understanding of how AVL technologies can be used to maximize patrol in police agencies. Our data suggest that, at least in cities like Dallas with large geographies, AVL information will not aid patrol allocations in large geographic areas because patrol coverage in beats is largely a function of cross district dispatch rather than Commander-specified deployment. However, it is effective in achieving higher levels of patrol in hot spots and significant reductions in crime. Additional studies are needed in other cities and focusing on hot spot areas to better understand the potential value in using AVL for deployment. Details: Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 2015. 127p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 29, 2015 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248958.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248958.pdf Shelf Number: 136256 Keywords: Automated Vehicle LocatorCrime Hot SpotsPolice DeploymentPolice PatrolPolice Technology |