Hot Spot Policing Reduces Violent Crime in Boston, MA
Organization Name:
Community Name:
Organization or Community Type:
What was the criminal justice problem facing the community?
Description of Problem:
In 2006, Boston experienced a decade-high increase in violence – peaking at 6,533 violent index crimes. Most concerning was an increase in assaultive street violence, especially assaults committed with guns. The yearly number of fatal and nonfatal shootings increased 133% from 162 in 2000 to 377 in 2006.
What factors were contributing to the criminal justice problem?:
- Lack of faith/confidence in the police.
Criminal Justice Topic area:
Crime Justice Sub-Topic area:
Which evidence-based solutions were recommended for this problem?
Name of evidence-based program or practice:
Description of Evidence-Based Program or Practice:
Crime control strategies focused on small areas generating a disproportionate amount of the crime. Rather than diffusing scarce resources across larger areas, the SST focused its efforts on specific crime hot spots. Many key elements of the program were rooted in evidence-based practices and past experience in launching a similar program in Lowell, Massachusetts (Braga and Bond, 2008).
How was the evidence-based solution implemented?
Response Strategy:
Based on crime data, the Boston Police Department (BPD) selected areas in which to focus their personnel and financial resources. Once selected, personnel were assigned and trained to ensure they used community and problem-oriented policing principles in addressing crime. The BPD held quarterly meetings to ensure accountability and it funded a formal evaluation in 2009.
- Prioritize Hot Spots. Using computerized mapping technology and violent index crime data for the 2006 calendar year, the BPD Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) identified 13 violent crime hot spot areas to receive Safe Street Teams. Not all identified violent crime hot spots received a SST because BPD only had enough patrol personnel to staff 13 teams. The BDP command staff selected the treatment areas based on their perception of each area’s need. The 13 SST hot spots covered 6.1% of Boston’s street geography and accounted for 23.1% of Boston’s violent index crimes in 2006 (1,743 of 7,533).
- Assign Personnel. The BPD assigned a deputy superintendent to oversee the SST initiative. In each of the 13 violent crime hot spot, a team of one sergeant and six patrol officers were assigned to implement the program.
- Train Personnel. The program required all SST officers to go through additional in-service training on the requirements of the SST program and the principles and techniques of community and problem-oriented policing.
- Identify Recurring Crime. The SST officers applied problem-oriented policing to identify recurring violent crime problems in their assigned hot spots. Officers engaged community members and local merchants in defining and responding to identified problems. They then analyzed the underlying conditions causing the problems to persist.
- Implement with Fidelity to the Model. SST officers were expected to follow community policing principles in their efforts to reduce violence and were required to stay in their assigned hot spot unless an emergency outside their defined area required additional support. Officers patrolled the hot spots on foot or bicycle instead of in patrol cars.
- Ensure Accountability. To ensure the program was implemented as intended, the BDP held accountability meetings each quarter with SST teams. Two meetings were held in BDP Headquarters and two meetings were held in the policing district stations that covered the SST areas. Violent crime trends in each SST areas were reviewed and appropriate responses discussed during these meetings.
- Evaluate. In 2009, the BPD received SMART Policing Initiative funding from U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to formally evaluate its SST program in collaboration with a team of researchers from Harvard University and Rutgers University.
Stakeholder Groups Involved:
- Residents in the SST areas
- Local merchants in the SST areas
- Community / Public Safety groups in the SSTs areas
Officers were required to engage community members and local merchants in their SST areas in defining and responding to identified problems in the hot spots. This information exchange was done informally by the SST through daily in-person contact as well as community and public safety meetings held in the SST neighborhoods on a weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly basis.
Estimated Cost to Implement:
$500,000.00
Estimated Time to Implement:
Impact and Outcomes
In 2009, with the support of a Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) grant from BJA, the BPD* and a team of researchers from Rutgers University and Harvard University evaluated the SST program. The analysis revealed that the SST program generated a statistically-significant reduction in violent crime at the SST street intersections and street block faces relative to comparable street intersections and street block faces located elsewhere in Boston including a 15% decrease in violent crime and 19% decrease in robberies.
Decreases occurred without displacement to nearby areas. These results confirmed the crime prevention value of place-based policing intervention and were used to expand the concept to address a broader range of crime and disorder problems in Boston.
The evaluation also examined the processes through which SST officers generated the observed crime control gains. The evaluation also revealed the implemented responses to violence problems did not follow a “one size fits all” model; rather the responses varied according to the nature of the underlying conditions. Some strategies employed by the SST included: graffiti removal, trash removal, focused enforcement on drug selling crews and drug market areas, ongoing order maintenance to manage social disorder, community events and establishment of new recreational opportunities for area youth such as a basketball league.
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* Bureau of Field Services, District Captains, Sergeants and Patrol Office and Office of
Research and Development
Lessons Learned
- The more focused and tailored police strategies are to the problems they seek to address, the more effective the police will be in controlling crime and disorder (Braga & Weisburd, 2010; National Research Council, 2004; Wiesburd & Eck, 2004).
- Problem-oriented policing interventions can modify characteristics, situations and dynamics that promote violence in targeted crime hot spots.
- Problem-oriented interventions can result in statistically-significant reductions in violent crime without displacing the problem to proximate areas.
- The realities of police program development and implementation are compatible with an evidence-based policing model (Braga, Davis, & White, 2012).
- Retrospective, methodologically-sound evaluations can offer important information on the success of a program.
- An ongoing commitment to evidence-based policing can lay an important foundation for the rigorous retrospective evaluation.
- There is tremendous value in police-academic partnerships in understanding crime problems, crafting innovative crime prevention strategies and evaluating program impacts. Academic partners offer a different skill set and additional resources that enhance crime problem analysis and facilitate rigorous scientific evaluation of police programs; strong academic partners can infuse science into police policy and practice.
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