Wilson & Kelling

• What was the background?

  • Newark Experiment
  • Safe & Clean program in New Jersey to improve quality of life
  • Taking police officers out of patrol cars and assigning them to walking beats which wasn't well received by officers
  • After 5 years foot patrol showed no reduction in crime rates but had other benefits as people in neighbourhoods felt more secure and believed crime had reduced and a more favourable opinion of police
• What was the aim?

  • To review how features of a neighbourhood can influence crime rates, changing role of police in US and strategies for maintaining order
• What did Wilson & Kelling say about safer neighbourhoods?

  • Foot patrol officers - communities more reassured as officers help to maintain order and reduced fear of crime due to positive relationships with police creating community
  • Broken windows - target for disorder as people don't care and more vulnerable to drugs and crime and people move away if not sorted which breaks down community
  • Community controls - disorderliness leads to people fearing drunks and gangs so need more police to reinforce informal mechanisms in community as breaks down interaction between people & community control
• What did W&K say about changing role of police?

  • New policing developments - role changed from maintaining order to detecting criminals as society wants undesirable people and behaviour arrested and decriminalisation of this removes order police have
  • Ensuring police treat people fairly:
  • Training of police is important

  Solutions:

  1. Try variations of Newark Experiment
  2. Use informal social control methods e.g. community rules
  3. Employ Citizen Patrols e.g. Guardian Angels in NYC
• What did W&K say about maintaining order?

  • US police forces experienced cuts and in some neighbourhoods foot patrols were useless
  • Key objective to identify neighbourhoods at tipping point where public order deteriorating but not unreclaimable
  • Few police depts. systematically identifying areas officers need assigning so they must look at neighbourhoods and decide where officers will make greatest difference
• What strategies did W&K suggest to maintain order?

  • Private security guards
  • Tenant organisations e.g. Neighbourhood Watch
  • Hire off duty police officers to patrol buildings
  • Patrol officers encouraged to use public transport and enforce rules on drinking and disorderly conduct
  • Individuals ought to recognise importance of maintaining communities without broken windows
• What were the conclusions?

  • Police may have been mistakenly encouraged to think they will be judged exclusively on their capacity as crime fighters and policing was focused on high crime areas
  • Should return to to view that police ought to protect communities as well as the individual crime stats measuring individual losses and not communal ones
  • Police should focus on value of maintaining intact communities without broken windows