By Philipp M. Dau, Christophe Vandeviver, Maite Dewinter, Frank Witlox, Tom Vander Beken

We systematically review the effectiveness of police presence. In doing so, we investigate concepts of police presence and differences between reported effects. Using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and protocols, we systematically identify and review eligible studies on police presence. Further, quality assessment and findings synthesis are used to map limitations of current research as well as grounds for future avenues. The systematic search strategies yielded 49 studies focusing on testing the effects of police presence or evaluating its measurement. We find evidence that police presence has mostly crime reduction effects on crimes related to motor theft, property, violence, and guns. Police presence also reduces calls for service and improves traffic behaviour. Police presence focused on specific areas, times, and types of crime achieves maximum effectiveness. The reviewed studies show a high degree of heterogeneity in reporting, however, which limits comparability of findings across studies. Research on police presence presents evidence for significant crime preventative effects of focused police actions. Police presence shows the strongest effects when focused on certain areas, times, or types of crimes. We encourage future research to focus on police presence en route and its effects, including crime prevention, traffic regulation, and fear of crime.

Unpublished paper, 2021.