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Policing Directions: a Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Police Presence

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Abstract

We systematically review the effectiveness of police presence. In doing so, we investigate concepts of police presence and differences between reported effects. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 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 which limits comparability of findings across studies. Research on police presence presents evidence for significant crime preventative effects of focused police actions and shows 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.

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Notes

  1. These databases were: Elsevier (Science Direct), Emerald Publishing, JSTOR, National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), ProQuest (Criminology Collection), Sabinet, Sage, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Web of Science, and Wiley.

  2. The introduced categorization goes as follows:

    Very low: no mention of measurement, unclear basis for calculations.

    Low: Staffing schedules, observations, hand written patrol logs.

    Medium: Deployment data, Radio log and call data.

    High: GPS tracking, experimental placement.

  3. Simpson et al. (2020) have placed a metal police cut-out or “Constable Scarecrow” to test effects of inanimate police presence.

  4. Calculation based on data available from Ariel et al. (2016).

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the Ghent University Research Council (UGent-BOF) Interdisciplinary Research Project funding scheme [BOF18/IOP/001 to C.V., T.V.B., F.W.]. Christophe Vandeviver’s contribution was supported in part by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) Postdoctoral Fellowship funding scheme [12CO619N to C.V.]. Frank Witlox’s contribution was supported by the Estonian Research Council [PUT PRG306 501 to F.W.].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology, Criminal Law and Social Law, Ghent University, Universiteitstraat 4, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Philipp M. Dau, Christophe Vandeviver & Tom Vander Beken

  2. Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO), Egmontstraat 5, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Christophe Vandeviver

  3. Department of Geography, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S8, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Maite Dewinter & Frank Witlox

  4. Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014, Tartu, Estonia

    Frank Witlox

  5. College of Civil Aviation, Nan**g University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nan**g, 210016, China

    Frank Witlox

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Contributions

PMD: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing—original draft. CV: conceptualization, methodology, validation, supervision, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition. MD: writing—review. FW: supervision, funding acquisition. TVB: supervision, writing–review and editing, funding acquisition.

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Table 3 Detailed summary of reviewed studies (n = 49)
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Dau, P.M., Vandeviver, C., Dewinter, M. et al. Policing Directions: a Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Police Presence. Eur J Crim Policy Res 29, 191–225 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-021-09500-8

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