Preventative Patrol is a theory of policing developed by O.W. Wilson that proposes that having police cars patrol an area in a “constant, unpredictable motion” can reduce and prevent crime. Larry Sherman’s experiments with the Kansas City Police Department in the 1990s proved that preventative policing can effectively reduce crime—but only if it is applied aggressively to a focused area where crime is known to occur at higher rates. In contrast, preventative patrolling is ineffective when practiced indiscriminately across unconcentrated areas.
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Preventative Patrol Term Timeline in Talking to Strangers
The timeline below shows where the term Preventative Patrol appears in Talking to Strangers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Eleven: Case Study: The Kansas City Experiments
1. A century ago, renowned law enforcement officer O.W. Wilson invented the idea of “ preventative patrol .” Wilson’s theory was that the constant presence of patrol cars would reduce crime. In...
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...the end, crime statistics were virtually identical across all three groups, and citizens in the preventative patrol group didn’t report feeling any more secure. Kelling published his study as the U.S. was...
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The Kansas City experiment proved that preventative patrol works only if it is applied aggressively, to a focused area. When other cities began...
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Chapter Twelve: Sandra Bland
...a serious infraction. For the most part, Encinia’s day is a case study in “modern, proactive policing .”
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Remsberg advises proactive patrol officers to pull over everyone to avoid being accused of racial profiling. If an officer...
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