What is the Study About?
Most people view police patrol as a main backbone of police work. The study sought to investigate several hypotheses. This included crime being not affected by the type of patrol. Additionally, it sought to find out that citizen perception would not vary based on the type of patrol. Further, it would test the hypothesis that citizen fear and behavior would not vary based on the type of patrol and traffic accidents would increase. This experiment was no surprise as the Kansas police department had become a leader in experimenting new and sophisticated technologies (Kelling, 1974).
In an attempt to propose strategies that would be used to solve issues such as crime, citizen fear and burglaries, the South task force in Kansas came up with the idea to conduct the experiment owing to the police officers questioning whether routine patrol was effective (Kelling, 1974). The assumption in most cases was that police presence was likely to reduce crime and make the citizens feel safe. Thus, the experiment was more about testing the effects of police patrol on crime.
Research Findings
One of the major findings of the study was that there was the lack of change in the citizens’ perception concerning the level of police patrol. Additionally, the level of police patrol, whether increased or decreased, did not have an effect on the amount of burglaries both in commercial and residential areas. Car thefts remained unchanged and cases of larcenies, vandalism, and other common crimes were still unchanged. This was contrary to the common traditional belief that increasing police patrol would reduce such crimes.
Businessmen attitudes towards the police services were also unchanged. It was also established that more than 60 percent of the police officers time was spent doing non-police work. This also led to the establishment that when police are on patrol, they have no way, through which they can gauge their effectiveness in reducing crime. Most of the officers were of the view that their patrols were an effective means of reducing crime and a major part of police function.
How would it apply to the United Arab Emirates?
One of the critical ways the findings of this study can be applied is by assessing how police resources are used in the UAE. Recently, the police in Dubai unveiled the use of Lamborghini sports cars in their patrols (Abdessadok, 2013). The study indicates that increasing police patrols has no effect in reducing the levels of crime, which implies that some of the resources that are channeled towards police patrol services may be directed towards other police functions where their effect can be felt. Additionally, the article can challenge the police functions in UAE by causing them to develop more procedures in police patrol, which if used may have an effect on the people’s perception and reduce levels of common crimes. The development of crucial crime preventative strategies should be a main objective in police patrol rather than assuming that having routine patrols improves safety or reduces crime. The use of the Lamborghini police patrols necessitate the need to have a police patrol experiment which will evaluate the effectiveness of using Lamborghini to avoid wastage on resources (Wesiburd and Braga, 2006). Furthermore, crimes committed indoors may less be influenced by increasing levels of police patrols (Hess and Orthmann, 2011).
References
Abdessadok, Z. (2013). PHOTOS: Dubai Police Add Lamborghini Aventador Patrol Car | TIME.com. NewsFeed | Breaking news and updates from Time.com. News pictures, video, Twitter trends. | TIME.com. Retrieved September 11, 2013, from http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/11/photos-dubai-police-add-lamborghini-aventador-patrol-car/
Braga, A. A., & Weisburd, D. (2006). Police innovation: Contrasting perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Hess, K. M., Orthmann, C. M. H., & Cho, H. L. (2012). Introduction to law enforcement and criminal justice. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar/Cengage Learning.
Kelling, G. L. (1974). The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment: A summary report. Washington: Police Foundation.
