Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment

This is one of the few experiments that has ever been completed that relates to policing. This particular experiment has never been attempted before. The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment occurred during 1972 to 1973. The Kansas City Police Department in Missouri was evaluated by the Police Foundation. This experiment tested to see if the presence of police offers in marked cars would reduce crimes. This experiment produced many questions. Would people notice the police patrol and crime change? Would the visibility of the officer change crime and victim surveys? Would police satisfaction change? And would citizens being in fear of crime change? Three different areas were chosen for officers to patrol with varying times. In the first
group, the officers only responded to calls from the people in the neighborhood. Officers did not patrol this neighborhood. In the second group, the patrolling was normal and the last group had double or triple the patrolling. This experiment began on October 1, 1972 and ended on September 30, 1973. Surveys, crime rates, arrests, and monitors were used to make a conclusion on whether the presence of police cars with officers reduce crime. For the best experiment with no bias data was taken before the experiment started and after the experiment ended. The findings of this experiment was surprising. Citizens did notice patrol change, varying the level of patrol had no effects on the residents and commercial thefts, the rate of crime reports did not differ, citizens report of fear did not change, and lastly the satisfaction with the police from the public did not change. The Kansas City Police Department came to the conclusion that there is little to no value in having routine patrol in marked vehicles. Preventing crimes and making the people feel safe did not change so therefore patrolling routines did not work. I was completely shocked by these results. I thought the results were going to be the opposite. If the police patrolled my neighborhood I would immediately feel much safer. I have read about a similar experiment and the results were exactly how I predicted it. In the similar experiment the community felt safer and the arrest rate decreased in those areas. Reading this experiment it sounds like they did everything correctly and I could not find any flaws with it. I am curious in whether it was just that particular town(s) that reacted this way or maybe we do need to find develop new methods for patrolling and policing.