FEEL GOOD POLICING

Surprise, surprise! The byline of the April 25 Houston Chronicle reads: A study finds ‘hot spot’ policing has had no effect on violent crime.

For the uninitiated, hot spot policing is the deployment of extra cops to neighborhoods that are experiencing unusually high crime rates, most often burglaries.

The Chronicle reported that “In four different deployments, the [Houston Police Department’s] Crime Reduction Unit teams did not reduce violent crime but did tamp down property crime, according to the study by the Police Research Center at Sam Houston State University. “

No surprise here. This kind of policing has been around for years and years, always with a minimum of success. It is least likely to reduce violent crimes because many of them happen behind close doors. And gang bangers are smart enough to know when the extra cops are nearby or not.

From time to time, my agency deployed extra officers into neighborhoods experiencing a lot of burglaries. It did reduce the number of burglaries, BUT THAT WAS ONLY BECAUSE THE CROOKS WERE SMART ENOUGH TO MOVE THEIR BREAK-INS TO OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS. And then, when we deployed into those neighborhoods, the burglars simply returned to the neighborhood we no longer patrolled with extra officers.

Unlike established hot spot units like those used by HPD, our detectives reported for an extra shift each night wearing police uniforms and driving around the targeted neighborhoods in marked patrol cars. We looked somewhat comical in our uniforms, as most of us had outgrown them by putting on a few pounds of extra fat.

What these hot spot programs really are is FEEL GOOD policing. People see more cops and feel more secure. Crime rates may be affected for a brief time. Then the city and the police agency will brag about crime reduction and get a lot of 'atta boys,' that is until the crime rate goes back to normal - the city and PDs don't publicize that though.