Police Patrol Case Study

1. How is the patrol function affected by the officer’s shift assignment? What would you expect to be the major differences in your city?
The duties of an officer and the way they approach those duties depend on their shift assignment. Day shifts are usually more routine shift addressing traffic controls, community events, etc. Swing shift are a little more active since the community is getting out of work and are more out and about. Graveyard shifts are more centered on guarding as individuals who are out at those times are either up to no good or are getting out of nightclubs after consuming alcohol. The beats of the city of Dallas are very different thus the nature of those beats differ from one another. The downtown and uptown area have more police presence at night since there is a lot of crowds and movement at night. Officers in residential areas, such …show more content…
While both methods look at anticipating future criminal behavior based on the analysis of past behavior, random patrolling utilizes electronic randomizing schedules. On the other hand, rather than driving around randomly, directed aggressive patrol officers are concentrate on locations with the highest incidences of crime (Jthart). Directed aggressive patrol officers can fall into patterns when patrolling the same area, allowing criminals to anticipate their moved and plan around them. While random patrol uses advanced mathematical algorithms to anticipate future crime, the routes are randomized to eliminate predictability (Hess). The effects of different methods of patrol were tested in the Kansas City randomized patrol study. Based on the findings from the experiment, many have interpreted the evidence that the police can do little to affect crime. However, given that much crime follows relatively stable patterns, in terms of location and time distribution, a directed approach to police patrol seems to offer strategic advantages