Do You Need the Cop?

What: Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment

Where: Kansas City, Missouri

When: October, 1972-1973

Question: Do Police patrols have an impact on the crime rates and the public’s feeling of safety from crimes.

Hypothesis: If Police patrols are lowered, then crime rates would increase. If Police patrols are increased, then crime rates would increase.

Research Methods: Three separate areas in the city. One area would receive no patrols. The only police presence would come in answering calls. The second area would receive an increase in police presence by two times what would be normal. The last area would receive the normal amount of police patrols.

Ethical Issues: Citizens in one area would receive no patrols. Leaving the citizens without any police presence could be dangerous to society and would be unethical to leave the citizens unprotected.

Type of Study: This experiment was focusing on one police department over a long period of time. Therefore, this experiment is a longitudinal case study.

Description and Results: The Kansas City Police Department, in 1973, wanted to find out if the presence of police patrols had any impact on crime rates and public’s feeling of safety. Over the course of one year, the police department began to vary its patrol presence in different parts of Kansas City. At the end of the experiment, data was collected based on items public surveys and police reports. The results showed no significant change in crime rates and the public’s feeling of safety in any of the three areas.

Impact: This information should not cause people to say we should remove all patrols. That type of action would be foolish and the taxpaying public would not approve. What can be said, however, is that officers on patrol may be able to perform personal related tasks while there is some free time during patrols.

Author: Evan Barnes