August 25, 2014

Shawnee, KS (Population: 65,000), is a suburban community located on the western edge of the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Beginning in 2004, violent crimes increased in Shawnee while they declined nationally. Then in 2008, due to economic conditions, the Shawnee Police Department eliminated some specialized police functions and reassigned those officers resulting in a 4.5 percent reduction in the total number of sworn officers. The department began seeking methods to reverse the negative crime trend without adding additional personnel.

In March 2010, department commanders attended a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration presentation about a successfully-piloted policing model known as Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS). DDACTS is a location-based prevention methodology that integrates crime, traffic crashes, calls for service and other enforcement data to establish effective and efficient methods for deploying law enforcement resources. DDACTS then focuses highly visible traffic enforcement (HVTE) in crime and crash overlapping locations as a means to reduce crimes, crashes and other social harms.

Once Shawnee’s data was collected and analyzed, one location called the “75th Street Corridor” was identified as having disproportionately higher incidences of crimes and crashes. From 2005-2009, the 75th Street Corridor, which only represented two percent of the City’s service area and eight percent of the population, accounted for 15.2 percent of reported violent crimes, 17.4 percent of property crimes and 13.1 percent of traffic crashes.

The Shawnee Police Department implemented the DDACTS model along the 75th Street Corridor in July 2010. A year later in 2011, the department received funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Smart Policing Initiative Program to conduct an academic evaluation of the effects of DDACTS on crime and crashes along the 75th Street Corridor. The research analyzed pre- and post-treatment statistics between the 75th Street Corridor, a control area and the rest of the city. The evaluation compared the average of three years of targeted stranger crimes and crash data from before and after the implementation of DDACTS.

At the end of the three-year treatment period, robberies along the 75th Street Corridor were reduced by 70.4 percent, vehicle thefts were reduced by 40.3 percent and vehicle burglaries were reduced by 32.9 percent; total target crimes were reduced a combined 39.5 percent. Vehicle crashes without injuries were reduced by 24.2 percent and crashes with injuries were reduced by 24.4 percent; total crashes combined were reduced by 24.2 percent. The total crime and crash reductions were each statistically significant at p<.05. The evaluation also revealed little to no evidence of displacement of crime or crashes; there was actual diffusion of benefits into adjoining areas and into another policing jurisdiction.

These significant crime reductions were accomplished through high-visibility policing contacts during unassigned times of on-duty patrol and traffic officers. No additional staffing needs or costs to the department were incurred making it a sustainable, evidence-based policing model.

For more information about the city of Shawnee’s DDACTS efforts visit:
http://www.smartpolicinginitiative.com/SPIsites/shawnee-kansas.