"Reduce Crime by Restoring Order, Restore Order by Reducing Crime"

1. Order-Maintenance Policing
for Police Departments
“ The Police Are Paying
Attention”
Criminal Justice Systems
Dr. Robelyn A. Garcia
(December 7, 2013 )
Robelyn A. Garcia
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2. Order-Maintenance Policing
for Police Departments
•Police are key to order maintenance
•Policing strategy that makes senses
•Reducing crime by restoring order
•Restoring order by reducing crime
(Bratton & Kelling, 2006)
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3. Order-Maintenance Policing
Philosophy
•This type of policing involves
an aggressive enforcement of
minor offenses and disorder to
reduce more serious types of
crime and overall crime rate.
(Rosenfeld, Fornango, & Rengifo, 2007)
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4. Order-Maintenance Policing
Components
•Broken Windows Theory
•Quality of Life Initiative
•Zero Tolerance
•Stop, Question, & Frisk
(Rosenfeld, et. al., 2007)
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5. The Goal of
Order-Maintenance Policing
Criminal Justice Goal
• Ultimate goal of repression
of criminal behavior by
apprehension, conviction,
and punishment of offenders
of quality of life crimes.
(Bratton & Kelling, 2006)
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6. Order-Maintenance Policing
• Quality-of-life offenses
•Vagrancy
•Loitering
•Prostitution
•Graffiti
•Panhandling
•Public drunkenness
•Vandalism
•Minor drug use
•Public urination
•Related breaches of public order
(Rosenfeld, et. al., 2007)
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7. Order-Maintenance Policing
The Broken-Windows Theory
•Developed in 1982 by Wilson and Kelling, is
a philosophical underpinning of ordermaintenance policing arguing that when
misdemeanor crimes (broken windows) are
addressed (fixed) then major crimes are
prevented.
•Supplies the rationale and theoretical
framework of crime control through order
maintenance for the quality-of-life initiative.
(Bratton & Kelling, 2006)
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8. Order-Maintenance Policing
Suppor ting Resear ch
•60,000 violent crimes were prevented in
New York City between 1989 and 1998 by
order-maintenance policing.
•The Police Commissioner credited the
quality-of-life initiative as the sole and
primary reason for the New York City drop
in crime rates.
•In 27 months, serious crime in NYC
decreased by 33% and the murder rate was
cut in half by order-maintenance policing.
(Bratton & Kelling, 2006;
Kelling & Bratton, 1998)
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9. Order-Maintenance Policing
Suppor ting Resear ch
•Las Vegas Police Department had a
18.3% reduction in serious offenses
within their order-maintenance unit
experimental area.
•Statewide felony assault and robbery
declined immediately in California
when implementing order-maintenance
policing; burglary and other crimes also
declined.
(Pace, 2010; Worrall, 2006)
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10. Policy Recommendations
l
Quality of Life Initiative for
Public Spaces
•Department wide mandated training.
•Disorder in public spaces instills the fear of
crime in law abiding citizens and causes
abandonment of public spaces, creating
opportunities for serious crimes.
•This initiative will restore order, public
confidence and bring down overall crime rate.
(Bratton & Knobler, 1998)
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11. Policy R ecommendations
Police Order-Maintenance Unit
•Specialized unit designed to reduce minor and
major offenses in high-crime communities by
arresting persons for minor infractions.
•Extensive police strategies and efforts
designed to address specific community crime
problems while reducing crime and fear of
crime.
•Decreases tension between the police and the
community by sending a message that the
police care and will enforce community
standards.
(Pace, 2010;
Bratton & Kelling, 2006
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12. References
Bratton, W. & Knobler, P. (1998). Turnaround: How America’s Top Cop
Reversed the Crime Epidemic. New York: Random House.
Bratton, W. & Kelling, G. (2006). There are no cracks in the
broken Windows. National Review. (February 28); p. 2.
Kelling, G. & Bratton, W. (1998). Declining crime rates: Insiders’ views of
the New York City story. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology
88:1217–32.
Pace, S., (2010). Assessing the impact of police order maintenance units
on crime: An application of the Broken Windows Hypothesis.
UNLV Theses/Dissertations. Paper 372. Retrieved 8-9-13 from
http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/372
Rosenfeld, R., Fornango, R., & Rengifo, A.F. (2007). The impact of ordermaintenance policing on New York City homicide and robbery
rates, 1998-2001. Criminology, 45, 355-384.
Worrall, J. (2006). Does targeting minor offenses reduce serious crime? A
provisional, affirmative answered based on analysis of countylevel data. Police Quarterly, 9, 47-72.
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