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The purpose of this paper is to describe how the Philadelphia Police Department instituted a large‐scale randomized controlled trial of foot patrol as a policing strategy and experienced 23 percent fewer violent crimes during the treatment period. The authors examine whether activities patrol officers were conducting might have produced the crime reduction. The activities of foot and car patrol officers research takes a closer look at what types are examined separately and differences between car patrol activities pre‐intervention and during the intervention are explored. Activities of foot versus car patrol officers during the study period are compared across treatment and control areas.

Official data on police officer activity are used to compare activities conducted by foot patrol officers with those by car patrol officers in 60 treatment (foot beat) and 60 control areas consisting of violent crime hot spots. Activities of car patrol officers are described pre‐intervention and during the intervention. Foot patrol officers’ activities are described within treatment and control areas during the treatment phase of the experiment. Car patrol officers’ activities are reported separately. The statistical significance of changes in car patrol activity pre and during intervention is evaluated using a series of mixed model ANOVAs.

There were noticeable differences in the activities conducted by foot and car patrol. Foot patrol officers spent most of their time initiating pedestrian stops and addressing disorder incidents, while car patrol officers handled the vast majority of reported crime incidents. Car patrol activity declined in both treatment and control areas during the intervention but there was no statistically significant difference between the treatment and the control areas.

The major limitation of this study is the restricted set of data describing officer activity that is captured by official records. Future studies should include a more robust ethnographic component to better understand the broad spectrum of police activity in order to more effectively gauge the ways in which foot patrol and car‐based officers’ activities interact to address community safety. This understanding can help extend the literature on “co‐production” by highlighting the safety partnerships that may develop organically across individual units within a police organization.

The study provides evidence that individual policing strategies undertaken by agencies impact one another. When implementing and evaluating new programs, it would be beneficial for police managers and researchers to consider the impact on activities of the dominant patrol style, as necessary, to understand how a specific intervention might have achieved its goal or why it might have failed to show an effect.

The research contributes to the understanding of the separate and joint effects of foot and car patrol on crime. In addition, it provides police managers with a clearer picture of the ways in which foot patrol police and car‐based officers work to co‐produce community safety in violent inner‐city areas.

The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the activities of police bicycle patrols.

A participant/observation research design was used. A five‐city, 32‐shift study on the output of police bicycle patrols was conducted. Same and similar ride‐alongs were conducted with bicycle and automobile patrols. All contacts (n=1,105) with the public were recorded and coded. These data included: number of people, tenor, seriousness and origination for each contact.

Analysis of these data provides evidence that bicycle patrols result in over twice as much contact with the public compared with automobile patrols. The field observation perspective revealed clear tactical advantages to bicycle patrols.

With a limited prior study of a police bicycle patrol's activities, this study is a significant initial step.

With evidence of tactical and numerical public contact advantages, more attention and resources aimed at deployment of police bicycle patrols appear to be warranted.

With large US cities and other departments using bicycle patrols, preliminary information on effectiveness appears to be both original and of value.

Presents a study which compares two police fleet management programs in San Diego County and combines both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods to evaluate the costs and effectiveness of a personally‐assigned vehicle program to that of a conventional pool car program. Concludes that personally‐assigned vehicles are most cost‐effective to maintain. Moreover, officers report a higher level of satisfaction using a personally‐assigned vehicle than a shared patrol car. Finds that those officers with individually‐assigned vehicles have less job stress and higher levels of morale.

This article presents a model for police visibility and people's fear of crime. Survey data were collected from 3,245 adults and 977 teenagers in two typical Finnish neighborhoods. A four‐factor model including two visibility factors (patrol‐car‐related activities and police‐on‐foot activities) and two fear of crime factors (crimes against property and crimes against persons) was constructed by structural equation modeling. Respondents who perceived the police more often in on‐foot activities were less fearful of crimes against property. In the teenagers' group, the same effect was found in relation to crimes against persons. In both groups, seeing the police more in patrol‐car‐related activities resulted in increased fear of crimes against persons and property. Our results indicate that a simple act for the police, such as stepping out of the car every now and then, i.e. not only in crime‐related situations, has a positive impact on the fear of crime as expressed by the public.

Presents results of a study which examined 50 US police officers perceptions regarding performance, applicability, effectiveness and safety issues when assigned to two‐officer units, compared with a one‐officer unit, for patrol operations in an urban setting. Half the group comprised an experimental area’s two‐officer units and half comprised a control area’s one‐officer units. It was found that officers generally agreed they would perform the same whether they were in a one‐ or two‐officer patrol car; that two‐officer units should be used at night and in areas where people mistrust the police, that two‐officer units could observe more than a single officer and respond more quickly to calls. However, most officers disagreed that two one‐officer cars could accomplish twice as much as one two‐officer car and that officers are more likely to be injured in two‐officer cars then in one‐officer cars. Notes the possibility of distractions, misunderstandings or disagreements taking place between partners sharing a vehicle for eight hours, as well as intrusion of privacy into an officer’s role/duty as a police officer.

The purpose of this study is to explore factors affecting police performance, such as violent crime, fear of crime and satisfaction with police, using objectively measured policing and neighborhood characteristics.

This study combined four data sources, including police statistics, a crime victimization survey, local government statistics and a public service satisfaction survey. Negative binomial regression and ordinary least squares models were estimated using data from 135 city governments.

Violent crime was negatively associated with arrest, while fear of crime was negatively associated with patrol and positively correlated with disorder and public places. In addition, satisfaction with police had a positive association with level of patrolling and disorder policing, whereas residents receiving public assistance, ethnic heterogeneity and entertainment establishments were negatively associated with it.

This paper identified the different factors that impact each type of police performance, indicating its unique characteristics. Further research should be conducted to analyze data from non-urban areas to improve external validity.

This study suggests that police managers need to choose the means of policing carefully depending on which performance indicators they are focusing on improving in the region.

Few studies to date have examined the correlation between objectively measured policing and neighborhood context factors and police performance at the macro level.

I. The Gendarmerie: Historical Background The Gendarmerie is the senior unit of the French Armed Forces. It is, however, difficult to give a precise date to its creation. What can be asserted is that as early as the Eleventh Century special units existed under the sénéchal (seneschal), an official of the King's household who was entrusted with the administration of military justice and the command of the army. The seneschal's assistants were armed men known as sergents d'armes (sergeants at arms). In time, the office of the seneschal was replaced by that of the connétable (constable) who was originally the head groom of the King's stables, but who became the principal officer of the early French kings before rising to become commander‐in‐chief of the army in 1218. The connétable's second in command was the maréchal (marshal). Eventually, the number of marshals grew and they were empowered to administer justice among the soldiery and the camp followers in wartime, a task which fully absorbed them throughout the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). The corps of marshals was then known as the maréchaussée (marshalcy) and its members as sergeants and provosts. One of the provosts, Le Gallois de Fougières, was killed at Agincourt in 1415; his ashes were transferred to the national memorial to the Gendarmerie, which was erected at Versailles in 1946.

Intelligence-led policing (ILP) involves the analysis of data to inform the development and implementation of strategic actions aimed at more efficiently reducing crime. The purpose of this paper is to examine how chronic acquisitive offenders – a focus of ILP – respond to police patrol, and how this knowledge can be turned into actionable strategies to reduce crime.

Interviews were conducted with 137 chronic offenders who had multiple convictions for burglary, robbery and/or vehicle crime. The interviews involved the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, including responses to situational crime vignettes.

When encountering police patrols, criminals were initially more likely to displace (e.g. committing crime elsewhere and/or later in the day) than to desist from offending. Some of the conditions under which police patrol was most effective were identified, including offenders’ fear of being recognized by officers. Repeated thwarted crime attempts appeared to be most impactful, with even the most chronic offenders becoming “worn down.”

The profiles of top offenders should be systematically disseminated to front line officers to augment the effectiveness of police patrol and minimize the possibility of crime displacement.

Offender interviews are a valuable source of information but they have been underutilized within an ILP framework. This research illustrates how offender interview research can inform and support the role of police in preventing crime.

Most US states exempt police officers from restrictive distracted laws, and most agencies require officers to use mobile data computers while driving. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a text-based distraction task on officer driving performance.

Experienced police patrol officers (n=80) participated in controlled laboratory experiments during which they drove a high-fidelity driving simulator on four separate occasions; twice immediately following five consecutive 10:40 hour patrol shifts (fatigued condition) and again 72 hours after completing the last shift in a cycle (rested condition). In each condition, officers drove identical, counterbalanced 15-minute courses with and without distraction tasks. The research used a within- and between-subjects design.

A generalized linear mixed-model analysis of driving performance showed that officers’ distracted driving performance had significantly greater lane deviation (F=88.58, df=1,308, p < 0.001), instances of unintentionally leaving assigned driving lane (F=64.76, df=1,308, p < 0.001), and braking latency (F=200.82, df=1,308, p < 0.001) than during non-distracted drives. These measures are leading indicators for collision risk.

Simulated driving tasks presented were generally less challenging than patrol driving and likely underestimate the impact of distraction on police driving.

Police officers appear to drive significantly worse while distracted, and their routine experience with using text-based communication devices while driving does not mitigate the risks associated with doing so. Study results suggest that policing organizations should modify policies, practices, training, and technologies to reduce the impact of distraction on officers’ driving. Failing to do so exposes officers and the communities they serve to unnecessary hazards and legal liabilities.