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Unpublished paper, 2008. 19p.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 Kevin W Whiteacre; Lindsay Medler; Dan Rhotonand Raeann Howes

Highlights of summary findings include: (1) from January to March of 2008, there were 768 metal thefts reported in Indianapolis; (2) copper was the most stolen metal, with copper pipes and plumbing accounting for more than 17 percent of all items and copper wires accounting for 8 percent; (3) on average, one catalytic converter was stolen every day during the reporting period; (4) 25 percent or 169 of the crime reports contained estimates of the values for the stolen items for those 169 cases, the average value of the stolen items was $4,314; (5) extrapolating those values to the other 75 percent of cases suggests the value of stolen metals thefts averaged just under $1 million per month; and (6) the Northeast District had the most residential metals theft, while the Southeast and Southwest Districts had the most commercial and vehicle related metals thefts. Metal theft describes the theft of items for the value of their constituent metals. It is generally agreed that metals theft has risen because of steep increases in the prices of metals. Law enforcement agencies across the country report growing concerns over metals thefts. The Indianapolis Metals Theft Project seeks to gather and analyze a wide variety of data to provide a clearer understanding of the incidence, types, costs, and impacts of metals thefts in Indianapolis. This is the first report on a pilot study to establish protocol for collecting, coding, and analyzing metals theft data from crime reports. It provides descriptive data on metals thefts from January through March of 2008.

Indianapolis: University of Indianapolis Community Research Center, 2008. 16p.

By Lisa Tompson, Jyoti Belur and Nikola Giorgiou

This report outlines the routes or processes through which Neighbourhood Watch activities might have an impact on crime reduction and other, associated, outcomes. These are broken down into chains of events (the ‘theories of change’ or ‘mechanisms’). Commonly used in evaluation projects, a theory of change is intended to simply but elegantly explain how and why something works . The first step is determining the intended outcomes of the activity, i.e. crime reduction or increased neighbourliness; the second is determining the logical sequence of specific actions and processes that are required to make that outcome likely to happen. The result is a process map that links activities and required conditions to produce intermediate changes and final outcomes. Articulating a theory of change before conducting any evaluation has the advantage of exposing measurement points along the process where data can be collected to evidence whether something is working as assumed. Therefore, measurement points along each theory of change we present are highlighted. Subsequently, the advantages and disadvantages of different data sets that can measure and evidence these points in the theory of change are summarised.

London:UCL, Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, 2020. 17p.

By Shane D Johnson, Lucía Summers and Ken Pease

Previous research by the writers and others demonstrated clustering of domestic burglary in space and time. This enabled the development of a predictive mapping instrument (PROMAP) which substantially outperforms traditional crime mapping in anticipating burglaries. This report seeks to determine whether the clustering which underpins PROMAP is also evident in relation to vehicle crime, specifically Theft from Motor Vehicle (TFMV) and Theft of Motor Vehicle (TOMV). Data of recorded vehicle crime over a one year period from Derbyshire and Dorset were examined to test that proposition. Analyses demonstrated that • TFMV clusters closely in space and time in both police force areas. When such an offence occurs at one location another is likely to occur nearby and soon after. To use the vocabulary of an epidemiologist, like burglary the risk of this type of vehicle crime is highly communicable. • TOMV clusters somewhat, but not in the same way or with the same closeness as TFMV. The pattern is similar in both force areas. • The spatio-temporal signatures of the two types of vehicle crime, as noted above, differ.This suggests different targeting or foraging strategies are employed for these two types of crime. The difference is consistent with common sense, since there is more post-offence activity implied in theft of a car (onward selling, changed identity, enjoying performance for a non-trivial period) than for theft from a motor vehicle, where the primary constraint on further offending is the offender’s carrying capacity. • There are data limitations which have implications for the ease with which a PROMAP variant dealing with vehicle crime could be deployed operationally. These include shortcomings in the current recording of locations of vehicle crime, and the special problems in mapping crime in car parks, Notwithstanding current data limitations, the patterning of vehicle crime in time and space is such as to encourage the view that prospective mapping could, with proper implementation, prove operationally useful in crime reduction and offender detection

London: UCL, Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, 2006. 52p.

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By Simone Eisenhauer

This thesis explores the security risk management and commercial organisation of public urban spaces at the 2010 FIFA World Cup (FWC) in South Africa. Extending knowledge of how commercial interests intersect with security risk management of public urban spaces at sport mega-events, this study examines these concepts in a developing world context. Using a neoliberal theoretical lens and drawing on the concepts of Festivalisation and Disneyisation, the research contributes to academic scholarship in the areas of both sport and event management. This is achieved through a critical examination of security and commercialisation strategies in ‘public spaces’ at a sport mega-event, namely, public viewing areas (PVAs) and commercial restricted zones (CRZs). The research problem was investigated by means of an inductive interpretive qualitative case study approach. The selected event was the 2010 FWC, and within this event an in-depth case study of Cape Town was selected for examination. Multiple sources of evidence included government, management, and media documentation.

Sydney: University of Technology, Sydney: 2013. 364p.

By Francisco Klauser

The paper draws upon empirical insights provided by a two-year research project relating to security governance at the European Football Championships 2008 in Switzerland and Austria (Euro 2008). The objective is to study the role and modalities of border and access control in the context of sport mega-event security on various national and urban scales. This investigation seeks to demonstrate that security and surveillance at sport mega-events are shaped, fundamentally, by efforts towards the increased flexibility, variability and mobility (in both space and time) of carefully orchestrated access, passage and border controls. At stake in this “mobile border assemblage” are a large variety of phenomena, places and scales: from classic border controls at the national boundaries to a wide range of inter- and intra-urban enclosures and passage points (Graham, 2010) aimed at monitoring, restricting, filtering and also managing and facilitating different forms and modalities of circulation (of people and objects). This paper explores the reasons, logics and characteristics of this phenomenon..

Neuchâtel, Switzerland: University of Neuchâtel, 2011. 26p.

By by Bob Harrison, James Dimarogonas, Jarrett Catlin, Richard H. Donohue, Thomas Goughnour, John S. Hollywood, Jason Mastbaum, Kristin Van Abel, Jay Balagna

In 2018, law enforcement agencies gained access to a federally funded and managed, interoperable first responder broadband communications network, the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), known as FirstNet. FirstNet was supposed to result in simple solutions for agencies seeking interoperability. For various reasons, this has not happened. Every law enforcement and first responder agency has legacy systems and equipment for mobile broadband uses and is faced with a complex set of decisions about its broadband communications infrastructure. Several competitors to FirstNet have emerged and are competing for a share of the public safety broadband market, causing confusion for end users. In addition, to make decisions regarding broadband communications systems, many agencies need assistance to understand the technical differences between various options.

RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. 2022. 110p.

By Kin Y. Ma

Over the past two decades, gang-related violence and control has plagued the Northern Triangle: the Central American (NTCA) countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. This gang-related behavior has propelled the countries to exhibit some of the highest homicide rates per capita globally, contributing to state fragility and mass emigration – most notably to the United States and Mexico. Mitigating such gang influence can be taxonomized into two areas: anti-gang activities focusing on recruitment prevention efforts, and counter-gang operations centered around disrupting, dismantling, or denying gang activities via law enforcement efforts. Scholars and subject-matter experts on gang influence both overwhelmingly agree and exhort that reducing gang membership remains a key factor in lessening a gang’s impact in a given area, as well as potentially yielding a more effective outcome than solely relying on the disruption provided by counter-gang operations. In view of this consensus, the scope of this study focuses specifically on gangprevention efforts in the economic, community outreach, and law enforcement sectors over the past two decades, while concurrently examining US-involved programs and their impact from a qualitative perspective. Most prior academic work on the topic consists of an overarching view of the totality of the programs. As such, this study either increases, updates, or combines the research conducted by the US government, academic community, field researchers, as well as the author’s original research conducted in either the NTCA or with officials inside the respective countries. As a result, this study confirms and furthers reasoning for the existing consensus, and moreover, coalesces the wide-ranging research existing in academia, US diplomatic efforts, and Guatemalan government efforts, as well as delving into program specifics existing in academia, US diplomatic efforts, and Guatemalan government efforts, as well as delving into program specifics

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2021. 114p.

By Peter J. Meyer and Clare Ribando Seelke

Central America faces significant security challenges. Criminal threats, fragile political and judicial systems, and social hardships such as poverty and unemployment contribute to widespread insecurity in the region. Consequently, improving security conditions in these countries is a difficult, multifaceted endeavor. Because U.S. drug demand contributes to regional security challenges and the consequences of citizen insecurity in Central America are potentially far-reaching, the United States is collaborating with countries in the region to implement and refine security efforts.

Washington, DC: U.S. Congressional Research Service, 2012. 40p.

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 Juan Felipe García, Daniel Mejia, and Daniel Ortega .

The Plan Nacional de Vigilancia Comunitaria por Cuadrantes (PNVCC) is a new police patrolling program introduced in the eight major cities of Colombia in 2010 by the National Police. The strategy divides the largest cities into small geographical areas (cuadrantes), assigns six policemen to each, establishes a new patrolling protocol involving more community contact, and holds officers accountable for crime in their assigned area. The plan warranted a comprehensive training program for over 9,000 police officers aimed at improving interpersonal skills and implementation of the new patrolling protocols. By staggering the training schedule between three randomly chosen cohorts of police stations, we generate experimental variation in the exposure to training and in the effective implementation of the new police protocols induced by the Plan Cuadrantes. Comparing the 4 months immediately after training with the same months from the previous year, we find a significant reduction in several types of crime attributable to the training program, ranging from around .13 of a standard deviation for homicides to .18 of a standard deviation for brawls. These impacts are driven by very large effects in high crime areas and very small -or zero- effects in low crime neighborhoods. Once we take into account the high spatial concentration of crime, the estimated effects account for an overall reduction in the number of homicides of about 22%. We suggest that the training program affected crime by increasing the patrol police’s sense of accountability to the population and also possibly through higher police motivation. Large efficiency gains in public service provision may be attainable with relatively inexpensive interventions that bring public servants closer to their clients.

Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–CEDE, 2013. 27p.

By Daniela Collazos, Eduardo García, Daniel Mejía, Daniel Ortega, and Santiago Tobón

Objectives: Test direct, spillover and aggregate effects of hot spots policing on crime in a high crime environment. Methods: We identified 967 hot spot street segments and randomly assigned 384 to a six-months increase in police patrols. To account for the complications resulting from a large experimental sample in a dense network of streets, we use randomization inference for hypothesis testing. We also use non-experimental streets to test for spillovers onto non-hot spots, and examine aggregate effects citywide. Results: Our results show an improvement in short term security perceptions and a reduction in car thefts, but no direct effects on other crimes or satisfaction with policing services. We see larger effects in the least secure places, especially for short term security perceptions, car thefts and assaults. We find no evidence of crime displacement but rather a decrease in car thefts in nearby hot spots and a decrease in assaults in nearby non-hot spots. We estimate that car thefts decreased citywide by about 11 percent. Conclusions: Our study highlights the importance of context when implementing hot spots policing. What seems to work in the U.S. or even in Bogotá is not as responsive in Medellín (and vice versa). Further research¿especially outside the U.S.¿is needed to understand the role of local crime patterns and police capacity on the effectiveness of hot spots policing.

Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–CEDE, 2019. 44p.

By Ana María Ibáñez, Amy Ritterbusch, Catherine Rodríguez

This paper uses a natural experiment to identify the impact of a judicial system reform on police behavior. The study finds that, after a decrease in the severity of judicial punishment imposed on Colombian adolescents, arrest rates for adolescents in most misdemeanor crimes decreased due to a change in police behavior. The magnitude of this effect ranged between 0.08 to 0.321 standard deviations. The uncertainty on how to operate the new system, the lack of training, and the potential disciplinary sanctions led police officials to reduce arrest rates. Nonetheless, police forces learned gradually how to operate within the new system and adjusted their operations, countervailing the initial negative impact on arrest rates. We present suggestive evidence that the reduction in arrest rates and the lower sanctions increased crime incidents in cities with a large proportion of adolescents in their population. Qualitative evidence collected in focus groups with police officials supports the principal quantitative findings and contextualize the obstacles that led to the decrease in arrest rates and the perceived increase of juvenile crime based on the officials' experiences in the streets.

Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–CEDE, 2017, 36p

By Jean-Pierre Guay

In Québec, street gangs are now among the newest threats to public safety (MSPQ, 2007; SPVM, 2005). Major police efforts to dismantle juvenile prostitution networks or reduce drug trafficking have escalated the flow of juvenile offenders into the adult correctional system. Gang members are a growing presence in the penal system and, to a certain degree, risk assessment creates its own problems. The objective of this research is to examine the applicability of the LS/CMI (Andrews, Bonta, & Wormith, 2004) to gang members and to identify specific criminogenic needs profiles compared to non-gang offenders. A sample of 172 offenders serving sentences of more than six months under provincial jurisdiction was used within this framework. Eighty-six offenders, identified by the Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec, were paired by age, status and city of residence with 86 offenders not identified as gang members. All were assessed with the LS/CMI. Data on new arrests and new convictions were used afterward to test the predictive validity of the LS/CMI. The results indicate that gang members present more diverse criminal histories and greater prevalence of convictions for violent offences. The LS/CMI data analysis showed that gang members present more significant criminogenic risks and needs, and in a greater number of areas than did the control group subjects. These higher needs translated into higher rates of re-arrest and substantially more convictions for violent crimes. The LS/CMI was also useful in predicting recidivism for gang members. Multivariate analyses with the Cox proportional hazard model suggest that, at equal risk, gang offenders are arrested more frequently for both general crimes and violent crimes. Age and equal risk factors also apply to new convictions for violent crimes; gang members are more likely to face new convictions than are non-members. The implications of these results are discussed.

Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2012. 35p.

By Laura E. Joyce

Representations of forensic procedures saturate popular culture in both fiction and true crime. One of the most striking forensic tools used in these narratives is the chemical luminol, so named because it glows an eerie greenish-blue when it comes into contact with the tiniest drops of human blood. Luminol is a deeply ambivalent object: it is both a tool of the police, historically abused and misappropriated, and yet it offers hope to families of victims by allowing hidden crimes to surface. Forensic enquiry can exonerate those falsely accused of crimes, and yet the rise of forensic science is synonymous with the development of the deeply racist ‘science’ of eugenics. Luminol Theory investigates the possibility of using a tool of the state in subversive, or radical, ways. By introducing luminol as an agent of forensic inquiry, Luminol Theory approaches the exploratory stages that a crime scene investigation might take, exploring experimental literature as though these texts were ‘crime scenes’ in order to discover what this deeply strange object can tell us about crime, death, and history, to make visible violent crimes, and to offer a tangible encounter with death and finitude. At the luminol-drenched crime scene, flashes of illumination throw up words, sentences, and fragments that offer luminous, strange glimpses, bobbing up from below their polished surfaces. When luminol shines its light, it reveals, it is magical, it is prescient, and it has a nasty allure

Santa Barbara, CA: Punctum Books, 2017. 137p.

By Irving Spergel, et al.

The goal of the GVRP was to achieve a significant absolute or relative decrease in the level of serious gang violence committed by 100 targeted gang members, as well as a reduction of serious gang violence in Little Village compared with 6 other similar Chicago communities. At least 50 of these gang youth were to receive intensive, collaborative services and supervision from the project team and associated community-based agencies and grass-roots groups. The Project Model called for a team approach that used interrelated strategies to address the gang problem; these included local community mobilization, social intervention, provision of social opportunities, suppression, and organizational change and development of local agencies and groups. In this final project report, a section on project implementation focuses on the genesis of the project, the beginning of field operations and research planning, organizational change and development, social intervention, suppression, community mobilization, and project transition (crisis, transfer, and termination). The second section of the report addresses project outcomes as determined by a survey of individual gang members, the documentation of program services/contact and effects, the criminal histories of program and comparison groups, the modeling of program effects, aggregate-level changes in gang crime, changes in community perceptions of the gang problem, and community and leadership perceptions of the GVRP. Regarding project implementation, this report concludes that although the project developed an effective collaborative approach among the members of a team of street-level police, probation, and community youth workers during the course of the 5-year project, the project did not adequately organize the local community or gain the full support of the administration of the Chicago Police Department. Regarding project outcomes, it did achieve a significant reduction in certain types of crime among approximately 200 targeted hardcore gang members served by the program. The coordinated approach was effective in reducing serious gang violence and drug crime by individual targeted youth. The strategies of social intervention, provision of social opportunities, and suppression were well implemented and effective in achieving their goals. Community and citywide institutional involvement must be achieved, however, if serious chronic gang problems are to be addressed. The lead agency would have to mobilize and encourage collaborative change in the policies and practices of city and county justice agencies, as well as social, education, and faith-based organizations, along with business and local community groups.

Chicago: School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, 2002. 100p.

Edited by Kempe Ronald Hope. Sr.

Much of the literature on police corruption and police reforms is dominated by case studies of societies classified as developed. However, under the influence of globalization, developing societies have become a focal point of scholarly interest and examination. Police Corruption and Police Reforms in Developing Societies provides critical analyses of the extent and nature of police corruption and misconduct in developing societies. It also examines police reform measures that have been implemented or are still necessary to control and mitigate the effects of police corruption in developing societies. This book offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the causes and consequences of police corruption. It also relates lessons learned from police reform efforts that have been made in a wide cross section of developing societies spanning several continents.

Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2016. 270p.