Policing firearm violence

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to generate information about the contours of police responsiveness, focussing on how quickly and precisely police make firearm arrests after a shooting incident. Design/methodology/approach – Using a modified version of the Knox close pair method, a spatio-temporal clustering technique, over 11,000 shooting incidents and firearm arrests between 2004 and 2007 in Philadelphia, PA were analyzed. Findings – Police are responding quickly and in a geographically targeted fashion to shootings. Across Philadelphia elevated patterns of firearm arrests were approximately two and a half times greater than would be expected if shootings and firearm arrests lacked a spatio-temporal association. Greater than expected patterns of firearm arrests persisted for roughly one-fourth of a mile and for about one week from the shooting incident but the strength of these associations waned over space and time. The pattern of police response varied slightly across different police divisions. Research limitations/implications – The current method uncovered spatio-temporal patterning and determined when these patterns were significantly different from what would be expected if the events were completely independent. Specific events and processes surrounding each event are not known. Practical implications – Findings can help inform the knowledge about police behavior in terms of how police produce arrests. Originality/value – The patterns observed here provide more micro-level detail than has been revealed in previous studies regarding police responsiveness to firearm violence while also introducing a more integrated spatially and temporally specific framework.

Policing gun crimes: A comprehensive review of strategies and effectiveness

“…Existing data was used in fourteen studies, including police and court data on ballistics, seizures, gun crimes, gun incidents, shooting incidents and arrests, stolen guns, and firearm denials. When this method was used, the original crime data, police case files, and/or court data were often entered into a database that allowed statistical analysis (Braga and Pierce, 2011; Drawve et al, 2014; Jiao, 2014; Loftin et al, 1991; Mohler, 2014; Payne and Gainey, 2008; Raphael and Ludwig, 2003; Wyant, 2014; Wyant et al, 2012), while cases/reports and/or police activities in other studies were directly analyzed (Burruss and Decker, 2002; Goralski, 2013; Johnson, 2017; Kessler et al, 2003; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2018).…”

“…Although RTM-guided patrol seems a new initiative, it is included here as a routine activity because no new unit was created and patrol officers simply work on a different routine. These studies indicate that routine patrol activities were effective in seizure of illegal firearms and lead to more charges than more aggressive actions (Burruss and Decker, 2002), patrol visibility deterred gun crimes and specialized investigations led to more cases solved (Jiao, 2014), routine firearms seizures and arrests reduced subsequent shootings in the nearby areas but the declines were temporary (Wyant et al, 2012), police responsiveness after a shooting incident led to higher number of arrests (Wyant, 2014), and routine patrol activity as guided by RTM was effective in reducing crime and improving patrol deployment (Dahmm, 2019). One study of RTM was on its reliability in predicting gun crime with no evaluation of its effectiveness in reducing gun crime (Drawve et al, 2014).…”

Stress level and heart rate variability in police post-occurrence of bank robbery: an experience report

“…It can be stated that a confrontation with heavily armed robbers is among the most dangerous of operational demands. 6 High-speed motorized pursuit, 3 negotiating with criminals, 22 hostage rescue, 23 and possible shootings 24 are prevalent in bank robberies. In spite of this high emotional demand, however, the policemen in our sample did not exhibit changes in the level of perceived stress.…”