Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T02:20:55.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Three Tiers for Evidence-Based Policing

Targeting “Minimalist” Policing with a Risk-Adjusted Disparity Index

from Part I - Taking Stock of Evidence-Based Policing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

David Weisburd
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and George Mason University, Virginia
Tal Jonathan-Zamir
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gali Perry
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Badi Hasisi
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Get access

Summary

As the COVID19 Pandemic disrupted the world in 2020, it produced a new strategy of using geographic “Tiers” in public health, especially in the UK: the idea that the intrusiveness of prevention policies should be proportionate to the geographically varying risk of harm from the virus, with greater intrusiveness targeted selectively on only the highest-risk locations in order to cause minimal disruption. A Tiered policing system to prevent serious violence could apply the same principles, especially with proactive strategies such as stop and search. While such strategies can be effective when targeted on very violent hot spots, they can also minimize collateral damage if they are largely restricted to hot spots. This chapter shows how police legitimacy in democracies could be enhanced by confining most highly-intrusive policing, such as stop and search, to “highest-tier” areas for serious violent victimizations, possibly limited to 5% of all places in a city. Equality of intrusive protection across racial groups within the most violent Tier could be tracked and regulated by a Risk-Adjusted Disparity (RAD) Index. In lower tier areas, reducing proactive policing could reduce friction between police and community, and provide the greatest benefit yet offered by evidence-based policing.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akinwotu, E. (2020a). Nigeria to disband Sars police unit accused of killings and brutality. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/11/nigeria-to-disband-sars-police-unit-accused-of-killings-and-brutalityGoogle Scholar
Akinwotu, E. (2020b). Nigeria cracks down on ‘end Sars’ protesters, alleging terrorism; Authorities suspend accounts of supporters and fine media for ‘exaggerated reporting’. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/13/nigeria-cracks-down-on-end-sars-protesters-alleging-terrorismGoogle Scholar
Allen, P., & Burke, D. (2020). Paris riots: Protesters launch fireworks during ‘anti-police brutality’ demonstrations. Mirror. www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/paris-riots-protesters-launch-fireworks-23085085Google Scholar
Bailey, H. (2020, November 13). Minneapolis violence surges as police officers leave department in droves. Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/national/minneapolis-police-shortage-violence-floyd/2020/11/12/642f741a-1a1d-11eb-befb-8864259bd2d8_story.htmlGoogle Scholar
Barnes, G. C., Williams, S., Sherman, L. W., Parmar, J., House, P., &Brown, S. A. (2020). Sweet spots of residual deterrence: A randomized crossover experiment in minimalist police patrol. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/kwf98/Google Scholar
Bottoms, A., &Tankebe, J. (2012). Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 102, 119170.Google Scholar
Broadwater, L., & Fandos, N. (2020). Amid tears and anger, House democrats promise ‘Deep Dive’ on election losses. New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/us/house-democrats-election-losses.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=ArticleGoogle Scholar
Brunson, R. K. (2020). Protests focus on over-policing. But under-policing is also deadly. Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/underpolicing-cities-violent-crime/2020/06/12/b5d1fd26-ac0c-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.htmlGoogle Scholar
Campana, P., & Giovanetti, . (2020). Predicting violence in Merseyside: A network-based approach using no demographic information. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 4 (3), 89102.Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control. (2021). Data Finder – Health, United States – Products. Retrieved February 28, 2021, from www.cdc.gov.Google Scholar
Cohen, S. (1985). Visions of social control: Crime, punishment and classification. Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cohen, J., & Ludwig, J. (2002). Policing crime guns. In Ludwig, J., & Cook, P. (Eds.), Evaluating gun policy: Effects on crime and violence. (pp. 217239) Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Crabtree, S. (2020). Most Americans Say Policing Needs ‘Major Changes’. Gallup News. https://news.gallup.com/poll/315962/americans-say-policing-needs-major-changes.aspxGoogle Scholar
Gadher, D., & Lamb, C. (2020). Cressida Dick: Black boys ‘nine times more likely to be murdered’. The increased use of stop and search is disproportionately affecting black people but the Met chief says it is saving young lives. The Times. www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/cressida-dick-black-boys-nine-times-more-likely-to-be-murdered-cv6ts7qmmGoogle Scholar
Gale, E. (2020). The species that changed itself: How prosperity reshaped humanity. Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Gladwell, M. (2019). Talking to strangers. Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Herndon, A. W. (2020) How a Pledge to Dismantle the Minneapolis Police Collapsed. New York Times 27 September.Google Scholar
Hiltz, N., Bland, M., & Barnes, G. C. (2020). Victim-offender overlap in violent crime: Targeting crime harm in a Canadian suburb. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 217239, 1–11.Google Scholar
Hopper, S. (2018). Predicting discovery of weapons during stop-and-search encounters in London: Implications for proportionate use of a controversial tactic. [Unpublished thesis]. University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jackman, R. (2015). Measuring harm in a cohort of sex offenders in Norfolk. [Unpublished thesis]. University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J. (2021). The radical idea to reduce crime by policing less, not more: Evidence-based policing aims to make policing more fair, by treating it like medicine running controlled trials to see which interventions work, and which don’t. Wired. www.wired.co.uk/article/evidence-based-policingGoogle Scholar
Judge, I. (2011). Summary Justice in and Out of Court [Annual Harris Lecture]. The Police Foundation.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Koper, C. S., & Mayo-Wilson, E. (2012). Police strategies to reduce illegal possession and carrying of firearms: Effects on gun crimes. Campbell Systematic Review, 8(1), 153.Google Scholar
Kumar, S., Sherman, L. W., & Strang, H. (2020). Racial disparities in homicide victimisation rates: How to improve transparency by the Office of National Statistics in England and Wales. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 4(3), 178186.Google Scholar
Liang, H. H. (1969). The Berlin police and the Weimar Republic. Journal of Contemporary History, 4(4), 157172.Google Scholar
Lum, C. (2021). Perspectives on policing. Annual Review of Criminology, 4, 1925.Google Scholar
McGarrell, E. F., Chermak, S. M., & Weiss, A. (2002). Reducing gun violence: Evaluation of the Indianapolis Police Department’s Directed Patrol Project. US Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs.Google Scholar
Mogelson, L. (2020). The heart of the uprising in Minneapolis. The New Yorker.Google Scholar
Nawaz, A., & Tankebe, J. (2018). Tracking procedural justice in stop and search encounters: Coding evidence from body-worn video cameras. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 2(3–4), 139163.Google Scholar
Pavia, W. (2020). Murders in New York at highest level for a decade. The Times. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/murders-in-new-york-at-highest-level-for-a-decade-3bvvrsns9Google Scholar
Reiss, A. J., & Roth, J. (Eds.) (1993). Understanding and controlling violence, 1. National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, R., Deckard, M. J., & Blackburn, E. (2014). The effects of directed patrol and self‐initiated enforcement on firearm violence: A randomized controlled study of hot spot policing. Criminology, 52(3), 428449.Google Scholar
Sandall, D., Angel, C. M., & White, J. (2018). ‘Victim-offenders’: A third category in police targeting of harm reduction. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 2(3), 95110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherman, L. W. (1987). Repeat Calls to Police in Minneapolis. Office of Justice Programs. www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/repeat-calls-police-minneapolisGoogle Scholar
Sherman, L. W. (1992). Attacking crime: Police and crime control. In Morris, N. & Tonry, M., (Eds.), Modern policing: Crime and justice, 15, (pp. 159230). University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W. (2007). The power few: Experimental criminology and the reduction of harm. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 3(4), 299321.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W. (2013). The rise of evidence-based policing: Targeting, testing, and tracking. Crime and justice, 42(1), 377451.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W. (2018). Reducing fatal police shootings as system crashes: Research, theory, and practice. Annual Review of Criminology, 1, 421449.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W. (2020). Avoidable deaths in police encounters with citizens: Immediate priorities. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 687(1), 216226.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W., & Berk, R. A. (1984). The specific deterrent effects of arrest for domestic assault. American Sociological Review, 49(2), 261272.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W., Gartin, P. R., & Buerger, M. E. (1989). Hot spots of predatory crime: Routine activities and the criminology of place. Criminology, 27(1), 2756.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W., &Kumar, S. (2021). Equal protection by race with stop and frisk: A Risk-Adjusted Disparity (RAD) index for balanced policing. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 5,119.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W., Shaw, J. W., & Rogan, D. P. (1995). The Kansas City Gun Experiment. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W., & Weisburd, D. (1995). General deterrent effects of police patrol in crime “hot spots”: A randomized, controlled trial. Justice Quarterly, 12(4), 625648.Google Scholar
Sidhu, B., Barnes, G. C., & Sherman, L. W. (2017). Tracking police responses to “hot” vehicle alerts: Automatic number plate recognition and the Cambridge crime harm index. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 1(4), 211224.Google Scholar
Skogan, W., & Frydl, K. (Eds.) (2004). Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence. Report of the Committee to Review Research on Police Policy and Practices. National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Tankebe, J. (2013). Viewing things differently: The dimensions of public perceptions of police legitimacy. Criminology, 51(1), 103135.Google Scholar
Tankebe, J., Reisig, M. D., & Wang, X. (2016). A multidimensional model of police legitimacy: A cross-cultural assessment. Law and Human Behavior, 40(1), 1122.Google Scholar
UK Government. (2020). Local Restriction Tiers: What You Need to Know. Gov. www.gov.uk/guidance/local-restriction-tiers-what-you-need-to-know, downloaded December 1, 2020.Google Scholar
Vitale, A.S. (2017). The end of policing. Verso.Google Scholar
Watkins, A. (2020). Violent year in New York and across U.S. as pandemic fuels crime spike. New York Times.Google Scholar
Weinborn, C., Ariel, B., Sherman, L., & O’Dwyer, E. (2017). Hotspots vs. harmspots: Shifting the focus from counts to harm in the criminology of place. Applied Geography, 86, 226244.Google Scholar
Weisburd, D. (2015). The law of crime concentration and the criminology of place. Criminology, 53(2), 133157.Google Scholar
Weisburd, D. (2016). Does hot spots policing inevitably lead to unfair and abusive police practices, or can we maximize both fairness and effectiveness in the new proactive policing? University of Chicago Legal Forum, 661689.Google Scholar
Weisburd, D. (2020). Review of Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 4(3–4).Google Scholar
Weisburd, D., Groff, E. R., & Yang, S. M. (2014). Understanding and controlling hot spots of crime: The importance of formal and informal social controls. Prevention Science, 15(1), 3143.Google Scholar
Weisburd, D., & Majmundar, (Eds.) (2018). Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities. Committee on Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime, Communities, and Civil Liberties, Committee on Law and Justice. National Research Council.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×