Preventive Policing Strategies: Evaluating Effectiveness and Impact

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of various preventive policing strategies implemented to reduce crime rates in communities. It explores hotspot policing, which focuses on high-crime areas; zero-tolerance policing, which enforces strict adherence to laws; problem-oriented policing, which identifies and addresses underlying crime issues; and predictive policing, which uses data to anticipate criminal activity. The report examines the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy, citing examples and discussing their impact on community safety. It also addresses potential side effects and limitations, such as the displacement of crime or the potential for biased application. The analysis highlights the importance of understanding the multifaceted nature of crime prevention and the need for tailored strategies to address specific community needs.

Running head: PREVENTIVE POLICING STRATEGIES
Preventive Policing Strategies
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Introduction
Preventive Policing Strategies are developed for preventing and reducing large-scale
crime rate in the community Krüsi et al. (2016). There are several types of preventive policing
strategies, which serve different types of crime prevention methods within the community. This
study will critically analyze different types of preventive policing strategies citing their
examples. Apart from that, the study will also discuss the strength and weakness of these
strategies and demonstrate their impact on the community. Furthermore, the study will also
discuss the side effects of these policing strategies.
Discussion
Law enforcement agencies have implemented several strategies and methods for
combating with crime and ensuring public safety. Policing strategies have gone far beyond just
responding to calls and service. Preventive policing strategies are now more concerned with
seeking increasing crime prevention, intervention and response to crime prevention like
community outreach, crime mapping, efficient resource distribution, suspect location, crime data
collection and many more. According to Sherman et al. (2014), the focus of preventive policing
strategies is to reduce and deter the crime and criminal behavior in partnership with the
community. Different preventive strategies are effective in different situations for preventing
crime in the community through protecting it from external threats. On the other hand, Buerger
and Mazerolle (1998) opined that resources used in the crime prevention strategies may be
different, but the goal of the strategies is unique and directed towards major crime prevention in
the community.

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Hotspot policing strategy is actually invented by majority of U.S Police departments.
Later, it has been adopted by several other countries including Australia. According to Desmond
and Valdez (2013), hotspot policing strategy is actually used on small geographical areas, where
crime rate is concentrated. Moreover, such police preventive strategies are actually in urban
areas, where crime rate is highly frequent. On the other hand, Weisburd and Telep (2014) opined
that “hotspot preventive strategies are mostly used in the small geographical areas, where the
crime rate is highly predictable and frequent, which is at least over a one period” (pp. 200-220).
In this strategy, the law enforcement agencies are focused on limiting the police resources in the
areas, where the frequency of crime rate is quite higher. As per, Braga, Papachristos and Hureau
(2014) the appeal of hotspot strategy relies on reduction of overall crime rate of city through
focusing on small hotspot areas. Furthermore, this preventive strategy also uses various forms of
crime mapping for identifying the crime towards effective prevention. While considering the
example of hotspot policing strategy, it can be seen that hotspot policing strategy is mainly used
in Drug Market Intervention of Australia for preventing drug usage and sell in some specific
areas.
Hotspot prevention strategy is used for improving the quality of life of the community
through reducing the rate of crime occurrence in a small geographical area. According to Gill et
al. (2014), hotspot policing uses advance software technology for predicting the crime to be
occurred. Furthermore, this strategy is also popular for digging deeper of the crime for finding
accurate solution for crime prevention. However, Camacho, Lee and Smith (2016) opined that
hotspot prevention strategy is only limited to small geographical area. Therefore, it cannot solve
the bigger crime issue for large geographical areas. Furthermore, the limited resources of hotspot
strategy may also hamper the crime prevention effectiveness of specific area.

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Zero Tolerance policing is strict non-discretionary law enforcement approach, which is
thought to be tough on crime. Under this police preventive approach, the police enforce every
aspect of law. According to Davis (2013), zero tolerance policy is the police preventive strategy,
which imposes strict punishment upon infraction of stated rules. The intension of this law is to
eliminate undesirable conduct from the community. On the other hand, Bornstein (2015) opined
that zero tolerance policy forbid the person having authority to change the punishment for the
crime for fitting circumstances subjectively. Moreover, this preventive strategy pays closer
attention to the minor offences for enhancing the quality of life of the community people. Such
minor offences are like graffiti, public drinking, drink driving, vagrancy, begging and many
more. While considering the example of zero tolerance policy, it has been found that the police
force of Australia uses zero tolerance preventive strategy for preventing the drink driving in
South Australia.
Zero tolerance policing always enhance the quality of the people in the community
through minimizing even the minor offence. According to Davis (2013), zero tolerance policy is
highly effective for preventing even minor offenses, which can later be taken the shape of large
crime. Moreover, this strategy is popular for its protection to the potentiality of large-scale
crime. However, Bornstein (2015) opined that zero tolerance policing strategy has nothing to
prevent the large-scale crime. Therefore, it is limited to protect the community from large-scale
crime. Furthermore, this policing preventive strategy has also some side effects, which can affect
the community people. Moreover, punishing the people even for minor offense can enhance their
anger level, which can in turn enhance their tendency to conduct large-scale crime.
Problem-oriented policing involves identification and analysis of specific crime and
disorder problems for developing specific response strategies. According to Corsaro, Brunson

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and McGarrell (2013), police force uses problem-oriented policing for proactively identifying the
underlying problems towards reducing the crime and disorders from their roots. The police
forces are expected to analyze the specific problem of the community systematically and search
for resolving the problem completely by analyzing the impact of the efforts. On the other hand,
Cameron (1990) opined that “problem-oriented policing majorly focuses on identification for
repeatedly occurring incidents in the community and resolving that repeatedly occurring crime in
the community” (pp. 477-512). While considering the example of problem-oriented policing, it
can be seen that the police force of Australia uses problem-oriented policing strategy for
responding to the complaints of illegal drug use and sales on a regular basis in Australia.
Problem-oriented policing strategy effectively builds police community relation through
involving the community in finding the repeatedly occurring crime. This police preventive
strategy actually provides long lasting and improves quality for the community people through
resolving a specific repeatedly occurring crime. According to Corsaro, Brunson and McGarrell
(2013), Problem-oriented policing strategy is extremely popular in the community because of its
ability towards resolving the repeatedly occurring crime from its root. This strategy is also
advantageous for accurately identifying the pattern a specific crime and providing best solution
to its. However, Mazerolle, Darroch and White (2013) opined that Problem-oriented policing
strategy is limited to identify the root of the repeatedly occurring crime, if the crime is displaced
from one region to other. Moreover, the police forces are generally reluctant to identify the crime
within their region. However, they are reluctant to indentify the crime, when it is displaced to
another region. Furthermore, problem-oriented policing strategy is also limited to deal with
minor crimes in the community. While considering the side effect of this preventive strategy, it
can create unnecessary threats within community people even if there is actually no crime at all.

5PREVENTIVE POLICING STRATEGIES
Predictive policing preventive strategy involves usage of mathematical, analytical and
predictive techniques in law enforcement towards identifying potential criminal activities.
Mohler et al. (2015) pointed out that Predictive policing uses innovative approach of preventing
crime before it starts. The method of predictive strategy incorporates both small-scale and large-
scale crime in the community. According to Choi and Lee (2016), predictive strategy mostly uses
crime mapping tool for assessing the potentiality of the crime to be occurred in the community.
Moreover, crime mapping needs some historical data related to the potential crime. In such
situation, the police force can collected such crime information from the community people,
which build the interdependence relation between the police and community. While considering
the example of Predictive policing preventive strategy, it can be seen that Australian police force
mostly uses this strategy for identifying the location of the criminals through using crime
mapping.
Mohler et al. (2015) stated that predictive policing is highly popular for its ability to
prevent the crime before in occur and protect the community from large-scale disruption.
However, Choi and Lee (2016) argued that predictive policing can perform wrong crime
mapping on collection of insufficient information related to the potential crime. While
considering the side effect of predictive policing, it can be seen that blaming people based on
wrong crime mapping can disappoint the suspected people in the community.
Conclusion
While concluding the study, it can be said that policing preventive strategies are framed
to prevent the crime rate in the community. Hotspot policing strategy is focused on small
geographical areas towards preventing the crime rate. On the other hand, zero-tolerance policing

6PREVENTIVE POLICING STRATEGIES
focuses on preventing minor offense towards protecting the community from large-scale crime.
However, this policy has nothing to do with large-scale crime of the community. Furthermore,
problem oriented policing identifies the underlying causes of the repeatedly occurring crime in
the community. Moreover, this strategy resolves the crime from its roots. However, displacement
of the crime can reduce the effectiveness of this strategy.

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