Effective Policing Strategies

Rod K. Brunson, Ph.D.

Ayanna Miller-Smith
Northeastern University
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Boston, MA
U.S. Policing: A
Complicated and
Troubled History
Early Policing
● Involved slave patrols who constantly monitored slave movements
(Bass, 2001)
● Slave patrols were also responsible for:
○ Returning escaped slaves
○ Squashing slave revolts, often with extreme violence
Features of Current Policing are Reminiscent of Past
Atrocities
● Simultaneous over- & under-policing of disadvantaged, black
neighborhoods
● Lack of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in several U.S. police
departments
● Police misconduct and other troubling behaviors are concentrated in
urban, black neighborhoods
Race is foremost regarding how
society defines, constructs, and
regulates public space
(Bass, 2001)
Current State of Police-
Minority Community
Relations
Police-Minority Community Relations
● Graphic images of untoward police violence from the Civil Rights era
(and numerous contemporary examples) have come to symbolize the
long-standing, fragile relationship between black citizens and the police
● Deeply rooted in mutual suspicion and mistrust
● Black citizen distrust of the police and low-levels of legitimacy
 Violent crime is disproportionately concentrated in
black neighborhoods, places where residents are
overrepresented among victims and perpetrators.

Effective policing strategies are sorely needed in such

ecological contexts
What does Police
Effectiveness Look Like?
What is Police Effectiveness?
The extent to which policing achieves its proper, officially sanctioned goals

● Enforcing laws equitably

● Preventing and controlling crime

There is not always consensus regarding how best to achieve the

aforementioned goals, however.

● Officers might regard order maintenance policing as effective crime

reduction strategies. Conversely, citizens may perceive such actions as
discriminatory, unjustified, and harmful (Gau & Brunson, 2010).
Wide Range of Available Policing Strategies

● Broken windows
● Compstat
● Community Policing
● Focused Deterrence
● Hot Spot Policing
● Problem-oriented Policing

Focused deterrence has proven effective on several key dimensions.

What is Focused
Deterrence?
What is Focused Deterrence?
● Relies on data to identify and target repeat, high risk offenders
● Crime prevention efforts are focused on particular individuals and groups
○ Avoid besieging and criminalizing communities of color (Brunson, 2015)

Operation Ceasefire:
● A form of focused deterrence
● Boston (1996) in response to surging youth gang and gun violence
● Utilized group violence reduction strategies in the hope of changing
offender behavior
Operation Ceasefire
Key elements:

● Improved understandings of the underlying causes of persistent crime problems

● Facilitating collaborations between law enforcement, community organizations &
social service providers
Community Call-ins:

● Offenders presented with evidence linking them to active criminal cases

● Those called-in are confronted by influential community members
○ Community members express care and concern for offenders’ well-being but
also express intolerance for future wrongdoing
● Call-in clients meet with on-site social service providers for evaluation
Operation Ceasefire: Evidence-Based Results
● Boston, MA (1996) (Brunson et al., 2015)
○Experienced a nearly two third drop in youth homicides
○Strengthened police-minority community relations
○Improved police legitimacy through enhanced, mutual trust
● Oakland, CA 2018: (Braga et al., 2018)
○ 31.5% reduction in gun homicides when controlling for other trends & seasonal
variations
○ Target neighborhoods experienced a 20% reduction in shootings
○ Ceasefire clients had fewer victimizations and arrests during the two years
following enrollment, compared to the previous two years
○ Participants preferred Ceasefire over indiscriminate, heavy-handed policing strategies
○ Improved police-minority community relations
Operation Ceasefire: Evidence-Based Results (cont’d)
● Chicago, IL 1999: (Ritter, 2009)
○ Ceasefire decreased fatal and non-fatal shootings (including retaliation)
■ Shootings decreased 16-28 percent in four of seven study sites
○ More than three-fourths of call-in clients reported needing jobs; 87 percent
received significant help
○ Two-thirds of clients became active in Ceasefire after forming relationships with
a violence interrupter
● Los Angeles, CA 2000: (Gonzales, Henke, and Hart, 2005)
○ In Boyle Heights, all three crime types declined—violence, gangs, and guns
It is not only what police do but,
most importantly, how...
Procedural Justice and
Police Legitimacy
Procedural Justice
Emphasizes Four Principles
● Fairness in process

● Transparency in actions

● Opportunities for voice

● Impartiality in decision making

These propositions have been shown to increase police legitimacy.

Police Legitimacy
● Judgements that ordinary citizens make about the rightfulness of police

conduct and organizations employing and supervising them

● Often measured by public support for the police, willingness to
cooperate, obey directives, and support crime fighting efforts
● Subjective and heavily dependent on citizen perceptions
Why Ceasefire Works?
● When police establish and maintain mutually beneficial partnerships with

local stakeholders, they can successfully broker trust.

● Enlisting trusted community liaisons has the potential to increase citizen
views of police legitimacy.
○ Recognizes the importance of understanding how residents prioritize
local crime and disorder problems
Ten Point Coalition (TPC) - Boston Police Department
● A small cadre of activist black ministers played a critical role in managing

Boston Police Department (BPD)-minority community relationships.

● TPC clergy held BPD responsible for dubious actions and on other

occassions involving lawful behavior, publicly defended and supported

the Department.
● BPD sought and received feedback from the TPC in advance of launching

potentially controversial enforcement strategies.

(Brunson, Braga, Hureau, & Pegram, 2015)
Policy Implications
Policy Implications
Purposeful police-community collaborations (like Ceasefire) have
consistently proven effective toward reducing crime and improving citizen
attitudes toward the police.
 References
Bass, S. (2001). Policing Space, Policing Race: Social Control Imperatives and Police Discretionary Decisions. Social Justice,
28(1), 156–176.
Braga, A., Brunson, R., Zimmerman, G. and Papachristos,, A. (2018). Oakland Ceasefire Impact Evaluation: Key Findings.
Brunson, R. K. (2015). Focused Deterrence and Improved Police-Community Relations: Unpacking the Proverbial Black Box
Focused Deterrence in New Orleans: Policy Essay. Criminology & Public Policy, 14(3), 507–514
Brunson, R. K., Braga, A. A., Hureau, D. M., & Pegram, K. (2015). We Trust You, But Not That Much: Examining Police–Black
Clergy Partnerships to Reduce Youth Violence. Justice Quarterly, 32(6), 1006–1036.
Gau, J. M., & Brunson, R. K. (2010). Procedural Justice and Order Maintenance Policing: A Study of Inner‐City Young Men’s
Perceptions of Police Legitimacy. Justice Quarterly, 27(2), 255–279.
Gonzales, A., Henke, T. and Hart, S. (2005). Reducing Gun Violence: Operation Ceasefire in Los Angeles. National Institute of
Justice.
Ritter, N. (2009). Ceasefire: A Public Health Approach to Reduce Shootings and Killings: National Institute of Justice.