Reducing Firearms Violence Through Directed Police Patrol

Final Report on the Evaluation of the Indianapolis Police Department's Directed Patrol Project
In the early 1990s, the Kansas City Police Department conducted a quasi-experiment in which they tested the effect of directed police patrols in a high violent crime neighborhood. The directed patrol strategy utilized officers in patrol cars who were freed from the responsibility of responding to calls for police service. The officers were instructed to proactively patrol the neighborhood with a special emphasis on locating and seizing illegally possessed firearms. The results of the project were striking. The increased traffic enforcement led to a 70 percent increase in seizures of illegal firearms.
This, in turn, was associated with a 49 percent decrease in gun-related crime in this area
(Sherman, Shaw and Rogan, 1995; Sherman and Rogan, 1995).

Building on the findings from Kansas City, the Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) implemented a similar project in July 1997 with the intent of reducing violent crime. In contrast with Kansas City, IPD’s project was implemented in two target areas for a 90-day period as opposed to the six-month, single site intervention in Kansas City. Although the overall level of police activity in terms of officer hours, vehicle stops, and arrests was quite similar in the two projects, the Indianapolis project involved a lower level of dosage given the 90-day period and the two target areas. On the other hand, the Indianapolis project allowed for a test of two somewhat different strategies.

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http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/194207.pdf