By Anthony A. Braga, Brandon C. Welsh, Cory Schnell

Disorderly conditions are seen as a precursor to more serious crime, fear of crime, and neighborhood decline. Policing disorder is associated with reductions in crime, but only when community and problem-solving tactics are used. Aggressive, order maintenance based approaches do not seem to be effective.

What is this review about?

Policing social and physical disorderly conditions is rooted in the broken windows approach: disorder is a precursor to more serious crime, fear of crime, and neighborhood decline. Addressing disorder has become a central fixture of policing, especially in the United States. Yet, evaluations of the effectiveness of disorder policing strategies in controlling crime yield conflicting results.

Policing disorderly conditions can be divided into two main strategies: (a) order maintenance or zero tolerance policing, where police attempt to impose order through strict enforcement and (b) community policing and problem-solving policing, where police attempt to produce order and reduce crime through cooperation with community members and by addressing specific recurring problems.

This review examined the effects of disorder policing strategies compared to traditional law enforcement actions (e.g., regular levels of patrol) on the rates of crime, including property crime, violent crime, and disorder/drug crime. This review also examined whether policing disorder actions at specific locations result in crime displacement (i.e., crime moving around the corner) or diffusion of crime control benefits (i.e., crime reduction in surrounding areas).

Campbell Systematic Reviews, Volume 15, Issue 3. September 2019

By John S. Hollywood, Kenneth N. McKay, Dulani Woods, Denis Agniel

Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs) are the Chicago Police Department's district-level real-time crime centers, launched in January 2017 and expanded in 2018. They serve as command and control centers for staff to gain awareness of what is happening in their districts and decide on responses. SDSCs support daily and weekly planning meetings and provide near–real-time support for detecting, responding, and investigating crimes as they occur. Their objectives are to improve districts' abilities to reduce crime, hold offenders accountable, improve officer safety, and reduce service times.

In this report, the authors evaluate the processes, organizational structures, and technologies employed in the SDSCs. They also assess the extent to which the introduction of SDSCs was associated with reductions in crime levels in the districts. They find that SDSCs are a promising tool for supporting crime reduction. According to the authors' models, a district that adds an SDSC can expect to see reductions in at least some of the ten types of major crimes modeled, including shootings, robbery, burglary, and criminal sexual assault.

More broadly, the authors see SDSCs as a promising model for improving law enforcement agencies' awareness of their communities, improving their decision-making, and carrying out more effective and more efficient operations that lead to crime reductions and other policing benefits.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2019. 98p.

By Christopher Stone, Todd Foglesong and Christine M. Cole

The Los Angeles Police Department is completing one of the most ambitious experiments in police reform ever attempted in an American city. After a decade of policing crisis that began with the beating of Rodney King in 1991 and culminated in the Rampart police corruption scandal in 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in May 2000 that it had accumulated enough evidence to sue the City of Los Angeles over a pattern-and-practice of police misconduct. Later that year, the city government entered a "consent decree" promising to adopt scores of reform measures under the supervision of the Federal Court. The experiment in police reform in Los Angeles has two components: the consent decree produced by the Justice Department’s intervention, and the leadership of Chief William Bratton, who since 2002 has focused the Department’s attention simultaneously on reducing crime, improving morale, and complying fully with the consent decree. What has the experience in Los Angeles revealed about policing under a consent decree?

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  Has the consent decree achieved its purpose? How is the Los Angeles Police Department controlling its use of force; what is the state of police-community relations; how rigorous is the governance and oversight of the LAPD; and how is the culture of the Department changing? Most important, as the LAPD has incorporated the policies and practices specified in the consent decree into its own operations and management, has the Department won the public’s trust and confidence while reducing crime and bringing offenders to justice? To answer those questions, the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at the Harvard Kennedy School examined the LAPD using multiple research methods. We undertook hundreds of hours of participant observation from patrol to the command staff; we analyzed administrative data on crime, arrests, stops, civilian complaints, police personnel, and the use of force. We compiled surveys conducted over the last decade of police officers and residents of Los Angeles, and then conducted three surveys of our own, one of residents, another of LAPD officers, and a third of detainees recently arrested by the LAPD. Finally, we conducted a series of formal focus groups and structured interviews with police officers, public officials, and residents of Los Angeles. While some questions remain unanswered, this ranks among the most comprehensive assessments ever conducted of a police department outside of a time of crisis. We found the LAPD much changed from eight years ago, and even more so in the last four or five years.Description text goes here

Cambridge, MA: Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School, 2009. 76p.

By Joshua C. Hinkle, David Weisburd, Cody W. Telep and Kevin Petersen

POP is a proactive policing strategy developed by Herman Goldstein, who argued that the standard reactive model of policing was ineffective as it was overly focused on the means of policing (number of arrests, average response time, etc.) rather than the end goal of reducing crime and enhancing community safety. He suggested that police could be more effective if they were more proactive and researched root causes of crime, and developed tailor-made responses. This review assesses the effectiveness of POP interventions – defined as those programs which generally followed the tenets of the SARA model (scanning, analysis, response, assessment) developed by Spelman and Eck – in reducing crime and disorder and fear of crime, and improving citizen perceptions of police.

This update of a Campbell systematic review assesses the effectiveness of problem-oriented policing in reducing crime and disorder. It summarises the evidence from 34 studies: 28 from the USA, five from the UK and one from Canada.

Oslo, Norway: Campbell Collaboration, 2020. 86p.

The Knife Crime Prevention Programme: Process Evaluation

By Grant Thornton UK LLP

The Knife Crime Prevention Programme (KCPP) is an intervention which aims to reduce the prevalence of knife carrying and use by young people. Young people are referred to the programme if they are aged between 10 and 17 and have been convicted of an offence where a knife or the threat of a knife is a feature. The programme is based on a national delivery framework, with flexibility for local adaptation. It was rolled out as part of the Home Office ‘Tackling Knives Action Programme’ (TKAP). This process evaluation was commissioned to:  provide a picture of the implementation and delivery of KCPP  explore participants’ knowledge, perceptions and attitudes to knife crime before and after the programme  explore staff attitudes to the programme.

London: Youth Justice Board for England and Wales 2013. 29p.

By Jeremy Schoenfelder

This research investigated the theft of copper, including scope, impacts, and countermeasures. The researchers completed a literature review to demonstrate a global perspective of the problem. They took a survey of other state departments of transportation, utility companies, and developers to determine both successful and unsuccessful techniques being used to deter copper theft and the impact copper theft had on other geographical regions and other industries. Additionally, the researchers conducted a site survey to gain knowledge of the specific issues impacting the Arizona Department of Transportation and what mitigation techniques it was implementing. During the time of the research it was found: 1. The Arizona Department of Transportation estimates that costs over the last two years have exceeded $500,000. 2. The Arizona Department of Transportation has been diligent in implementing and adapting various methods and/or techniques to prevent copper theft and apprehend culprits. Suggested mitigation techniques include: 1. Implement a collaborative effort among ADOT, the

contracted private investigation firm, and outside consultant(s) to review and amend efforts on a periodic basis to maximize effectiveness through a thinktank type of approach. 2. Implement a program that would monitor ongoing development of methods used by other organizations. 3. Make particular use of the Copper Keeper, a device that makes it difficult to pull wire through conduit by locking the wire in place through the tightening of a compression bolt.

Rockville, MD: MITC (Mid-Atlantic Innovative Technology Center), 2009. 51p.

By International Union of Railways

Metal theft is a big problem for railway networks as thieves target signalling cables, overhead power lines and even metal fences to sell it for scrap. Railway networks are designed to fail safe, which means that when a cable is cut, trains are brought to a stop. This protects passengers but can lead to long and frustrating delays while the problem is examined and fixed safely. This type of crime causes considerable disruptions and the costs that are associated with replacing and repairing the damage often massively exceed the value of the metal stolen. Loss of communication networks and damage to railway tracks also raise public safety concerns. A large proportion of railway networks funds come from the government, so these thefts are, ultimately, at the taxpayer’s expense. It is clear that the stolen metal is often transported across several borders and sold as scrap or for recycling far away from the actual scene of the crime. Thus, both national and international cooperation and collaboration initiatives are needed to raise awareness, provide expertise and best practice to allow the exchange of ideas between all parties involved. Therefore, only a structured and common approach can provide a wide and extended set of solutions.

Paris: International Union of Railways, 2013. 12p.

By U.S. Department of Energy. Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) monitors changes, threats, and risks to the energy infrastructure in the United States. As part of that responsibility, OE published research in 2007 on the theft of copper wire from electric utilities. Early in 2010 there was evidence of an increase in such thefts. Because of this increase, OE decided to update its 2007 assessment of copper wire thefts. 1 • Electric utilities have launched public awareness campaigns, offered rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of thieves, marked copper wire for easier recovery from scrap metal dealers, and collaborated with stakeholders. Copper wire theft continues today throughout the United States, but the magnitude of theft has been reduced considerably. The problem is not likely to cease as long as copper prices remain sufficiently attractive to would-be thieves. However, the combined efforts of electric utilities, lawmakers, scrap metal dealers, and local law enforcement have succeeded in reducing the problem and driving a wedge between copper price increases and comparable increases in copper theft. • Legislation to reduce copper theft has been introduced in every State and passed into law in all but five States as of August 2010. • Scrap metal dealers are cooperating with utilities and lawmakers, reporting suspected thefts, and disseminating information through ISRI’s Theft Alerts. • Local law enforcement has become more responsive to electric utilities facing copper theft and is collaborating to recover more stolen copper and arrest those responsible. Since the beginning of the 2004 spike in copper prices, copper theft and copper prices have been directly linked. Although this link continues today, the rate of thefts as a function of the upward pull of prices has been mitigated

Washington DC: The Department, 2010. 17p.

By Nick Morgan, Jacqueline Hoare and Christos Byron

While most acquisitive crimes have fallen consistently over the past five years, metal theft increased between 2009 and 2011 in line with a sharp rise in global metal prices. It then fell during 2012 and 2013.  This paper summarises results of analyses which aimed to test whether the decline from 2012 was caused primarily by the government/law enforcement interventions launched to address metal theft, or was simply due to metal prices falling back from their peak.  The analysis is based mainly on data for metal thefts held by the Energy Networks Association (ENA), though data from British Transport Police (BTP) are also used to verify the main results. The phased roll-out of Operation Tornado across England and Wales helps to identify the specific impact of the interventions, as distinct from other factors that might have contributed to the fall in metal thefts.  The analysis found that metal thefts recorded by the Energy Networks Association and by British Transport Police fell to levels far lower during 2012 and 2013 than would be expected from the drop in metal prices alone.  This implies that the interventions launched during that period, Operation Tornado and cashless trading at scrap metal dealers (described below), did contribute to a substantial reduction in the number of offences.  Analysis showed a large, statistically significant effect for the interventions even when controlling for metal prices and other factors driving acquisitive crime.  Scotland, which did not receive the interventions, had a rising trend in metal theft during the post-intervention period, according to the Energy Networks Association data. This adds further weight to the main finding, and suggests that some metal theft may have been displaced north of the border.  As with most retrospective evaluations, there are necessary limitations with both the data and the methodology employed, but these findings are in line with the limited existing evidence from other nations.

London: Home Office, 2015. 26p.

By Chad Posick

In recent months the theft of some metals, especially objects made of copper, has received considerable attention in the media. Recently CPSI staff learned of a steep decline in “copper burglaries” in the City of Rochester over the past couple of months. That information prompted the following brief analysis. Copper Burglaries most often involve the removal of copper wire and/or pipe from residential property or the theft of such material from construction sites. Vacant or abandoned properties are especially vulnerable. Nearly eighty percent of Rochester’s copper burglaries have occurred in vacant property and nearly 80% occurred during renovations of that property. Costly damages often result from this offense including flooded basements, gas leaks and walls damaged to gain access to pipes. As the owner of many unoccupied properties, this offense is especially costly to the City of Rochester. In Rochester Copper burglaries showed a generally increasing trend over the past two years. They averaged 30 per month in Rochester and peaked at 59 in September of this year before falling dramatically. There were 17 reported copper burglaries in November, 2008.

Rochester, NY: Center for Public Safety Initiatives Rochester Institute of Technology , 2008. 4 p.

By Kevin Whiteacre and Raeann Howes

The study found that scrap yard presence in a community was the factor with the strongest impact on metal theft rate; the more scrap yards a city has, the more metal thefts it may have. Other factors included burglary rates and manufacturing presence in a community. Findings state that metals theft provides an opportunity for cooperation between law enforcement and scrap yard operators to work together to reduce purchases of stolen metals and maintain the integrity of the scrap market. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI), a member of the National Crime Prevention Council maintains a Theft Alert System that allows law enforcement to notify scrap yards when metal theft is reported. Police provide the estimated date and time of theft; location of theft; and a detailed description of the materials, including serial numbers and measurements; the investigating jurisdiction; a contact phone number; and the name of the investigating officer. This tool is available free of charge to any law enforcement agency and helps recyclers identify stolen material brought to their location. The Theft Alert System then sends this information via email to local scrap yards, allowing operators to identify material. The study is based on police reports and insurance claims.

Indianapolis: University of Indianapolis Community Research Center, 2009. 12p.

By William Lyon Pretorius

This dissertation focuses on the phenomenon of copper cable theft within the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Data was collected from literature sources as well as from security professionals combating copper theft. There are five primary objectives in this research: 1. To explore and to describe the extent and the impact of copper cable theft. 2. To gain insight into the profile and the modus operandi of the offender. 3. To evaluate current intervention measures used to combat the copper cable theft. 4. To describe the general factors limiting the success of combating copper cable theft. 5. To recommend probable intervention measures with which to combat copper cable theft. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with responsible security officials of victim stakeholder groups in Gauteng. It was established that copper cable theft is currently a very serious crime that deserves both attention and quick intervention before it does irreparable damage to the utility infrastructure of Gauteng, in particular, and in fact to all these infrastructures in South Africa.

Pretoria: University of South Africa, 2012. 213p.

By Ronald V. Clarke

Crime is not spread evenly across all places, people or times and, to be effective, preventive measures must be directed to where crime is most concentrated. Focusing on ‘hot spots’ – those places with a high rate of reported crimes or calls for police assistance – has proved useful in directing police patrols and crime reduction measures. Similarly, giving priority to ‘repeat victims’ of crime has proved to be an effective use of preventive resources. This publication argues that comparable benefits for prevention would result from focusing policy and research attention on ‘hot products’, those items that are most likely to be taken by thieves. These include not just manufactured goods, but also food, animals and works of art. The ultimate hot product is cash which helps determine the distribution of many kinds of theft, including commercial robberies, muggings, burglaries and thefts from ticket machines and public phone boxes. A better understanding of which products are ‘hot’, and why, would help businesses protect themselves from theft and would help the police in advising them how to do this. It would help governments in seeking to persuade business and industry to protect their property or to think about ways of avoiding the crime waves sometimes generated by new products and illegal use of certain drugs. It would help consumers avoid purchasing items (such as particular models of car) that put them at risk of theft and may lead them to demand greater built-in security. Finally, improved understanding of hot products would assist police in thinking about ways to intervene effectively in markets for stolen goods. This publication is the first to review comprehensively what is known about hot products and what further research is needed to assist policy.

London: Home Office, Policing and Reducing Crime Unit, 1999. 59p.

By Luke Bennett

This paper was drafted in Summer 2008. It features ideas and events that could not fit into my published paper 'Assets under attack: metal theft, the built environment and the dark side of the global recycling market' Environmental Law and Management 20, 176-183 (2008). At the time I intended to develop the draft into a companion piece to that paper, but other projects distracted my attention. Accordingly this draft paper is a little dated in its focus upon pre 2008 examples, however its conjectures on the nature and motives of metal thieves may still be worthy of some attention. I therefore offer this paper to public view on an 'as is' basis. If anyone finds my comments of interest then I would be glad to receive any comments and might thus be spurred to update the treatment and examples featured in the present draft.

Unpublished paper, 2008. 19p.

By James A. Cook

This thesis is a comparative case study comparing and contrasting the efforts of three countries (United Kingdom, France, Italy) in their fight to reduce copper wire theft incidents within their nations. The ultimate goal of the research is to highlight the significant threat posed to critical infrastructure from copper thieves and to offer best practice recommendations to policymakers within the United States in response, based on the experiences of the three targeted nations. An analysis of the data reveals that the United Kingdom has had the most success in the reduction of reported copper wire theft incidents primarily due to its multi-faceted approach to the problem, which includes heavy regulation of the scrap recycling industry, centralized law enforcement operations, and enhanced criminal statutes.

Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2015. 133p.

By Remone Govender

Cable theft could be currently considered as a significant problem, globally. The Eskom statistical figures indicate that cable theft creates a massive problem for service delivery and places a vast amount of pressure on its financial resources. Cable theft is highlighted on various different platforms within Eskom’s business operating units and while efforts for increased security and protection measures are in place, these measures appear to be inadequate to prevent it. This study investigated the extent of cable theft at Eskom and examined what actions Eskom and private security personnel should undertake to prevent it. This study further determined what action steps need be taken by Eskom’s internal security management team, and those responsible for the capturing of all relevant information related to it, in order to prevent any form of cable theft. This research has made four key contributions to the subject: (i) A new Eskom security structure was proposed, (ii) a newly designed Eskom training curriculum framework was designed for all private security personnel working at Eskom facilities, (iii) proposed changes to Eskom’s CURA system were made, and (iv) proposed changes were suggested for Eskom’s internal ENECC cable theft reporting system.

Kwadlangezwa, South Africa: University of Zululand, 2017. 355p.

By Daniel Mejía, Ervyn Norza, Santiago Tobón, and Martín Vanegas-Arias

We study the effects of broken windows policing on crime using geo-located crime and arrest reports for 80 Colombian cities. Broadly defined, broken windows policing consists of intensifying arrests -sometimes for minor offenses- to deter potential criminals. To estimate causal effects, we build grids of 200 × 200 meters over the urban perimeter of all cities and produce event studies to look at the effects of shocks in police activity in the periods to follow. We use spikes in the number of arrests with no warrant -which are more likely associated with unplanned police presence- as a proxy for shocks in broken windows policing. As expected, we observe an increase in crimes during the shock period, as each arrest implies at least one crime report. In the following periods, crimes decrease both in the place of the arrests and the surroundings. With many treated grids and many places exposed to spillovers, these effects add up. On aggregate, the crime reduction offsets the observed increase during the shock period. Direct effects are more immediate and precise at low crime grids, but beneficial spillovers seem more relevant at crime hot spots. The effects of broken windows policing circumscribe to cities with low or moderate organized crime, consistent with criminal organizations planning their activities more systematically than disorganized criminals.

Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–CEDE, 2022. 34p.

By Mateo Dulce Rubio

I use residential burglary data from Bogota, Colombia, to fit an agent-based model following truncated L´evy flights (Pan et al., 2018) elucidating criminal rational behavior and validating repeat/near-repeat victimization and broken windows effects. The estimated parameters suggest that if an average house or its neighbors have never been attacked, and it is suddenly burglarized, the probability of a new attack the next day increases, due to the crime event, in 79 percentage points. Moreover, the following day its neighbors will also face an increment in the probability of crime of 79 percentage points. This effect persists for a long time span. The model presents an area under the Cumulative Accuracy Profile (CAP) curve, of 0.8 performing similarly or better than state-of-the-art crime prediction models. Public policies seeking to reduce criminal activity and its negative consequences must take into account these mechanisms and the self-exciting nature of crime to effectively make criminal hotspots safer.

Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–CEDE, 2019. 29p.

By Henk Elffers, Marlijn Peeters, Jasper van der Kemp & Guillaume Beijers

In three neighborhoods in the city of Amstelveen, the Netherlands, an experiment with near repeat patrolling after a burglary was implemented, during the 4th quarter of 2011. After a burglary had been reported to the police, two uniformed police officers were patrolling in a radius of 250 meter during two days from 7 am-11 pm. Though the near repeat patrols did influence the near repeat pattern of burglary in the experimental areas, crime rates in the experimental areas did not become more favorable, compared to those in a control area in the same city. It is suggested that the experiment, though asking for a considerable amount of officers' time, was not large enough to be able to demonstrate positive effects, which then implies that effects are at best small, if not absent. The report is a short resumé in English of an earlier publication in Dutch.

Amsterdam: Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement NSCR , 2018. 9p.

By A. Ojebode; B.R. Ojebuyi; N.J. Onyechi; O. Oladapo; O.J. Oyedele and I.A. Fadipe

The problem of ineffective policing still persists in post-colonial Africa and as a result, both donors and governments are seeking non-state alternatives or complements to the state apparatuses. These alternatives include private sector provision, donor-driven interventions and community-based or community-driven crime prevention practices. There is no shortage of community-based crime prevention (CBCP) practices in Africa and they come in a variety of forms and models: neighbourhood watches, vigilantes, religious and ethnic militias, and neighbourhood guards. However, the effectiveness of CBCP practices is still a subject of controversy despite the widespread prevalence of these practices. This study looks at the effectiveness of CBCP practices, considers possible reasons for their effectiveness or ineffectiveness, and on the basis of the research, makes some policy recommendations.

Brighton UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2016. 59p.