Hot Spot Policing
This paper shall discuss about selling of drugs in a street corner at Elizabeth Street in the Brisbane city. It is a major street in the city and is characterised by many retail outlets. There are also major shopping arcades, offices and hotels. The pedestrian access is easy due to the presence of many pathways like the one which is near the general post office. In this particular place, various drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs are sold mostly in retail. Although most of the activities of the drug selling take place at night, there is still much that goes on during the day. The fact that the street is in the Central business district favours the drug dealers and the drug users due to increased accessibility. There are a lot of clubs and bars along the street and therefore a lot of customers are usually attracted to such places.
Hot spot policing strategy which has been used in solving most of the drug selling problems uses computer technology to illustrate the statistical trends of the criminal data. The strategy assumes that crime is unevenly distributed and that is why it seeks to identify the areas where crime is concentrated and focus more in such areas. Once such an area is identified, police patrols can be increased to reduce a particular problem. According to the United States Department of Justice, a hot spot is an area that has greater than average number of criminal activities (Battin n.d). To identify a hot spot, crime mapping technique that employs two methods namely statistical spatial analysis and spatial modelling is applied. Identification and interpretation of a hot spot is very important because it prevents misallocation of police services. (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2008).
Many researchers have tried to study the effectiveness of hot spot policing and have come up with different conclusions. Studies of Braga (2007) revealed that although most of the scholars argue that hot spot policing leads to displacement of crime, the strategy does not have any effect on the same. In this case, displacement of crime basically means repositioning of crime from one area to another due to enforcement practices. The same studies suggested that there is no evidence to confirm that hot spot policing leads to crime relocation. Further studies of Braga (2007) affirm that use of hot spot policing contributes to the reduction of crime. This can be illustrated by the fact that seven out of the nine experiments conducted were able to record a reduction of the crimes. However, some scholars still believe that some literature was used incorrectly to understand the effectiveness of hot policing.
In yet another study by Bowers et al, the effectiveness of hot spot policing was investigated immediately after the onset of local theft incidences. In the same place where the burglary had occurred, it was found out that the residents became more susceptible to burglaries two months latter. The study was able to conclude that use of crime mapping effectively at such instances can be very helpful since the residents can know when to alert the police in order to increase the patrol. Compared to the traditional police strategies, the technique of hot spot policing was found to have more effect (2004).
Gorr et al (2003) conducted a research to study the effectiveness of hot spot policing and crime mapping technology used by police departments. The aim was to test whether crime mapping technology was effective in short term crime forecasting and whether the hot spot policing can effectively reduce crime. The results of the study indicated that the accuracy in predicting crime depends on the crime and the number of calls that are made for service. The study found out that crime prediction was most effective when crime and calls for disorder were reported in advance. The study was able to conclude that hot spot policing and crime mapping were far much more effective that the initial traditional police strategies.
Hot spot policing can be used effectively in managing the issue of selling drugs in the Elizabeth Street if only the right procedure was used. Since this is a street, identifying the drug spot is not difficult since the place can be identified by the members of the public and the police fraternity. However, it would be important to use crime mapping technique to identify whether there are other spots along the same street or there is only one single spot. The data to be used in identifying and analysing the drug hot spot can be derived from arrests made and crime reports, emergency calls for service, community meetings among other sources (Battin n.d).
Following successful identification and analysis of the drug selling hot spot areas, the next step would be to use the police crackdown measure to alleviate and eliminate the problem. This measure is supposed to prevent the drug transactions. Increasing the arrests eventually makes the drug sellers and buyers uncomfortable. Enforcement strategies can be very effective at this stage only if they are timed properly. To increase the arrest, test purchase operations can still be carried out so as to arrest unsuspecting sellers and buyers.
At the later stages, increasing the police patrols in that particular street can be of much help. This may not only help to increase the arrests but it is also supposed to make those who are involved in drug selling and buying aware that the area is being patrolled hence minimise their operations due to the fear of being arrested. Police can use their power to thoroughly search for the drugs in that particular street by conducting a police crackdown. As a result of a police crackdown in the street, drug selling and buying activities are supposed to drop rapidly and immediately. The studies of Jacobson reveals that people involved in drug selling in London are usually very sensitive of police activities. Jacobson notes that people involved in drugs consider the presence of police as a risk factor and hence avoid locations under police patrols (1999).
Hot spot policing police strategy can be very effective in such a case but still some problems can emanate from the same and affect the effectiveness of the method. For instance, community may oppose the police enforcement acts if they feel that the police are targeting some ethnic groups or are biased towards a particular group of people. The police department also feel that enforcement strategies like frequent police crackdowns are very expensive and cannot be maintained for long. Moreover, if stopped, the same way they respond quickly to the police crackdown is the same way they can respond to reduced crackdowns and hence increase the drug operations (Jacobson 1999).
To prevent recurrent cases of drug in the street, place management technique should be used. Since police alone cannot help completely in wining the drug selling battle, other agencies that are usually referred to as the place managers can be used to help the police in their operations. In this case, local businesses and the members of the public and local authorities can be used. In order to put environmental measures in place, the police and the place managers need to identify the characteristics that make the place to be favourable for drug selling as well as other measures that can make the place to be unfavourable.
Since the analysis of Elizabeth Street illustrates that lack of surveillance, presence of potential customers and the availability facilitators are the main cause of drug selling, appropriate measures can be put in place to monitor and control these factors. Surveillance can be increased by increasing the number of police patrols and ensuring that members of the public and the local authority take part in the surveillance. The drug facilitators can also be removed. For instance, telephone booths can be placed in places where place managers can monitor the conversation. Clubs, bars and other places that attract potential customers should be reduced or greatly monitored. Prostitution should be controlled since various studies show that prostitution and drug selling are related (Edmunds et al 1996).
The paper has identified hot spot policing as the best police strategy that can be applied in solving the problem of selling illegal drugs at the Elizabeth Street. Various literatures regarding the same problem were reviewed. More specifically, the literature that was able to link the problem with the police strategies was used. Since hot spot policing is the main strategy that has been used, crime mapping was used to identify the particular spot as well as the social and physical characteristics of the same. Other enforcement strategies like the increased police patrols and police crackdowns were used. The third party policing strategy has been used as a supporting strategy. Although the issue of drug selling at Elizabeth Street may seem complicated, the effective application of the discussed police strategy has helped in solving the problem.
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