Under the community policing philosophy, reducing citizen fear of crime has become a legitimate objective for police. Using the Twelve Cities Survey, a 1998 supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, this study examines the relationship between citizen perceptions of community policing and fear of crime, including other factors such as satisfaction with police and crime prevention behaviors by citizens. It is found that perceptions of community policing have strong positive effects on satisfaction with police and crime prevention behaviors. However, citizen perceptions of community policing do not directly affect levels of fear. In half of the cities examined, crime prevention behaviors had a positive (not negative) relationship with fear of crime. Implications for community policing efforts are discussed.

Research Summary: This research examines how funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), has affected violent and property crime rates in the United States from 1995 to 1999. Drawing on six years of panel data, we examine the effects of three types of awards made by COPS to 6,100 law enforcement agencies serving more than 145 million citizens. We estimate their impact on crime reduction over time in jurisdictions receiving funding and controlling for baseline levels of crime, socioeconomic characteristics, city size, and population diversity and mobility. Our analyses suggest that COPS hiring and innovative grant programs have resulted in significant reductions in local crime rates in cities with populations greater than 10,000 for both violent and nonviolent offenses. Multivariate analysis shows that in cities with populations greater than 10,000, an increase in one dollar of hiring grant funding per resident contributed to a corresponding decline of 5.26 violent crimes and 21.63 property crimes per 100,000 residents. Similarly, an increase in one dollar of innovative grant funding per resident has contributed to a decline of 12.93 violent crimes and 45.53 property crimes per 100,000 persons. In addition, the findings suggest that COPS grants have had no significant negative effect on violent and property crime rates in cities with less than 10,000 population. Policy Implications: The findings of this study imply that COPS program funding to medium‐ and large‐size cities has been an effective force in reducing both violent and property crime. Federal government grants made directly to law enforcement agencies to hire additional officers and promote innovations may be an effective way to reduce crime on a national scale.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how various policing innovations, including problem‐oriented policing, broken windows, intelligence‐led policing, Compstat, third‐party policing, and hot spots, could be integrated into the community policing philosophy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides a definition of community policing and individually examines each policing innovation to determine how they fit within the community policing philosophy.FindingsThe findings suggest that various policing innovations are wholly compatible with the community policing philosophy and that incorporating these innovations into community policing may improve their overall utility and the likelihood of their adoption.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper highlights the need for new ideas in policing to be built into existing policing innovations rather than developed in isolation.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for how law enforcement agencies fundamentally approach their work and come to understand and use policing innovations and how they are developed by scholars.Originality/valueThe paper is valuable to scholars and police practitioners because it clarifies the community policing philosophy and unifies various ideas regarding policing under one framework.

This research empirically examines the contribution that funding provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has had on police productivity in the United States from 1995 to 1999. Six years of panel data was assembled to assess the effect of COPS funding on police productivity (arrest) while controlling for other factors that could influence the relationship. COPS funding data was combined with Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data, 1990 U.S. Census data, and Labor Statistics data. A total of 4,482 cities are included in the study sample, accounting for more than 110 million Americans living in the United States. Primary findings suggest that after controlling for other factors, COPS hiring initiatives have resulted in a significant increase in police arrests for violent, drug, and social disorder offenses for the entire population of COPS grantees.

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