Philadelphia police are driving less and walking more. And crime is falling as a result. The Economist reports:
Philadelphia is a violent city, with a murder rate more than four times New York’s. To curb the mayhem, the police are resorting to an old-fashioned technique. Instead of insisting that officers cruise around in cars, the city is sending rookies out on foot. If they constantly patrol the same troubled neighbourhood, goes the theory, they will understand it better and keep it safer. The results are encouraging. ...
By talking to locals, they foster trust. “Jazz the Barber”, who owns a local salon, is appreciative. “They makes the area safer,” he says. “There used to be lots of robberies and home invasions around here. But now the police are seen, as opposed to when they’re just driving past. I think it’s cool.” Patrolling the district can be an eye-opener for new officers, says Sergeant Bisarat Worede, who has been in charge of the foot patrols since late 2010. It shows rookies that there are good people even in bad parts of town.
And it seems to work. By mid-June there had been seven homicides in the 22nd district in 2013, compared with 20 at that point last year. Burglaries had dropped from 373 to 283, aggravated assaults from 352 to 304, and 54 people had been shot, against 77 in 2012.
Philadelphia’s foot-patrol strategy was developed after a study in 2009 by criminologists from Temple University, which is in the 22nd district. A randomised trial overturned the conventional view that foot patrols make locals like the police more and fear crime less, but do not actually reduce crime. In targeted areas, violent crime decreased by 23%.
