Author Question: Suppose you work as a police officer in the 8th largest city in your state. During the past 5 years ... (Read 172 times)

bobbysung · **on:** Aug 24, 2018

Suppose you work as a police officer in the 8th largest city in your state. During the past 5 years the residential burglary rate has slowly increased and at present your city has the highest rate in the whole state.

Your city has the highest police/citizen ratio in the state, so your chief is perplexed. She checked with all the surrounding cities and discovered that each of them have been conducting miscellaneous micro-level crime control activities for the last 3-5 years. She also discovered that each of the surrounding cities had a decrease in the residential burglary rates during the prior 3-5 years. Because of your criminal justice degree, she asks you why the burglary rate is going up while other cities are seeing a decrease. She also asks you for advice as to what might work to lower the burglary rate in your city. What information and advice could you offer?

Question 2

A frisk requires:

A) Reasonable suspicion that a person is armed and dangerous.
B) Justification apart from that required for a sto

duke02 · **Reply #1 on:** Aug 24, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The surrounding cities are all actively conducting micro-level crime control, which is meant to control isolated areas, such as neighborhoods or hot spots in the city. Your city has not been involved in any deterrent activity, so it likely that the increase of crime is due to displacement. Through the passage of time, perpetrators from surrounding cities have moved their criminal activity to your city where no visible deterrence is present other than marked police cars. A recommendation might be to implement crime control strategies that would change the perception of perpetrators who think your city is an easier target. By joining in with other cities in target hardening, there is a likelihood of a decrease in burglaries in your city and possibly an additional diffusion effect in other cities. Some ideas might include visible cameras on street corners, marked cars parked in residential areas, a well publicized saturation of police in unmarked cars parking in residential areas for apprehension enhancement, target hardening activities in the neighborhoods (better lighting and neighborhood watch), and burglary alarm stickers on windows or those who participate in the program. The most important element of any crime intervention (intended as a deterrent) is that the potential perpetrator must know about it.

Answer to Question 2

D