Saturation Foot-Patrol in a High-Violence Area: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation

Authors

Eric L. Piza, City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal JusticeFollow
Brian A. O'Hara, Newark, NJ Police Department

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

This study incorporates a quasi-experimental design to evaluate a saturation foot-patrol initiative in Newark, NJ. Violent crime was measured for one year prior and during the initiative within the target area, a surrounding catchment area, and two separate control areas. The overall findings provide further sup- port for foot-patrol as a crime prevention tactic. Total street violence as well as the disaggregate categories of murder, shootings, and nondomestic aggravated assault decreased within the target area absent of any displacement effects. However, robbery suffered from substantial levels of both temporal and spatial displacement, showing saturation foot-patrol to have varying impact on different types of street violence. This finding suggests that police should design large-scale foot-patrol initiatives in a manner that does not allow offenders, particularly robbers, to easily gauge the scope of the intervention and identify alternate crime opportunities. Keywords

Comments

This work was originally published in Justice Quarterly.