Police Tactical Units and Hotspot Policing

In recent years (and specifically 2020), many U.S. cities have been plagued by large increases in homicides and gun violence. In response, specialized police tactical units are being used to address these critical and high-risk situations.

Many police tactical units use place-based policing strategies, such as hot spot policing, that focus on proactively targeting places where crime is highly concentrated. Place-based policing overlaps with intelligence-led policing, as officers use information/intelligence from past crimes to prepare for potential future incidents.

In this post, we are going to describe how these strategies can enhance your police tactical units and provide resources on this important topic.

Place-Based Policing

Place-based policing refers to proactive and data-driven strategies that help predict the “where and when” of criminal behavior, so that resources (e.g., police patrol, surveillance) can be allocated accordingly.  As part of this approach, spatial crime trends are analyzed to identify where certain crimes are highly concentrated, and temporal crime trends are analyzed to identify when certain crimes are most likely to occur. This also helps inform what types of resources are needed in a particular area (e.g., increased presence/patrol, surveillance of an ongoing problem, speed cameras).

CompStat is one resource that agencies often use to analyze crime data, and is often used in combination with place-based policing strategies. Two promising interventions that use a place-based approach are hot spot policing and third-party policing. Both approaches overlap with situational crime prevention and use problem-oriented techniques. To learn more about problem-oriented policing and how to apply it to a variety of different problems, see Arizona State University (ASU)’s Center for Problem-Oriented Policing.

Hot spot Policing

Hot spot policing, sometimes referred to as predictive policing, uses data to identify geographic areas with higher crime prevalence and proactively targets resources to those places. Common examples include proactive patrols in certain areas, as well as the deployment of certain surveillance technologies.

With hot spot policing, officers are also better prepared to respond to incidents because they are knowledgeable about the potential dangerousness of an area. Occasionally, hot spot policing overlaps with offender-focused strategies, where officers narrow their focus on certain offenders residing in specific locations.  For more information on offender-focused strategies, see our post: “Police Tactical Units and Offender-Focused Policing.”

The effectiveness of hot spot policing in reducing crime is supported in research, including a recent meta-analysis in 2019. To learn more, check out the following resources:

• ASU Problem-Oriented Policing Center’s Guide: “Understanding and Responding to Crime and Disorder Hot Spots”

• Hot spot research review collated by the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy’s Evidence-Based Policing Matrix

• Practice profiles on hot spot policing and geographically-focused policing from the NIJ’s CrimeSolutions.gov

• The UK College of Policing’s hot spot research summary

Third-Party Policing

Third-party policing is related to hot spot policing, but it places more emphasis on the buildings and infrastructure of an area rather than geography. This is based on the idea that certain facilities are associated with specific types of crime (e.g., drug sales commonly occur in hotels, and prostitution frequently occurs near alcohol-related establishments). With third-party policing, police form partnerships with respective community actors (e.g., hoteliers, business owners, schools), or third parties,  who act as “eyes and ears” and report signs of recurring problems on their premises.

Third parties are trained to recognize signs of suspicious activity and are required to notify the authorities upon recognition of certain signs. For example, hoteliers can be trained on how to identify the signs of drug trafficking or human trafficking, while property owners can be trained on how to identify suspicious activity occurring within their apartment complexes and/or businesses.

 Third parties are also encouraged to use their own powers, or “legal levers,” (e.g., regulations such as corporate rules or internal policies) to enhance crime prevention in ways that may not be accessible by police.

 If necessary, authorities can also coerce parties into compliance. For example, police can restrict a business’s right to sell alcohol, implement mandatory reporting of certain sales, or strictly enforce regulatory and property laws.

 Third-party policing is promising for decreasing certain types of crime. In particular, it seems to reduce drug trafficking and production, per a 2006 meta-analysis, as well as more recent studies from 2016 and 2018. The approach also may reduce truancy, according to two studies published in 2014 and 2017. Regarding the impact on violent crime specifically, the research on third party policing is still emerging. However, it stands to reason that reductions in crimes such as drug trafficking could lead to reductions in similar violent crimes. To learn more about third-party policing and police-business partnerships, see the following resources:

• Related guides from the ASU’s Problem-Oriented Policing Center: “Partnering with Businesses to Address Public Problems” and “Using Civil Actions Against Property to Control Crime Problems”

• The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy’s review of third-party policing on crime at micro-places

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• References

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