Foot Patrol Article Summary

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Pages: 6

The article was about getting police officers out of their patrol cars and into the neighborhoods to “walk the beat” or what others call foot patrol. Foot patrol was in some cases designed for punishment of officers according to the article by Kelling and Wilson (1982). This kind of patrol was to detour crime and to help make the residents in the neighborhood feel safe; even though it took away their chances of making a collar and reduced their response time. The article states that after five years of this program that the crime rate did not change, but it did accomplish several things 1) the residents were fooled into thinking they were more secure and 2) it increased the morale of beat officer 3) it created a better attitude for the people in the neighborhood and gave them job satisfaction (Kelling & Wilson 1982). Furthermore, with this kind of cooperation with the people in the neighborhood makes for easier communication with the people. This allows the beat cops to identify with those in their area like the drunkards, the strangers, and the residents; and if someone different or strange come into the neighborhood the beat cop would be able to recognize them. …show more content…
This theory actuates that if a window is left unrepaired then all the other windows will be broken in time. In this experiment the psychologist had two vehicles left on the street with no license plates and their hoods up; one in the Palo Alto, California and the other in the Bronx. The car in the Bronx was hit within ten minutes of being left first by a family of three then by other adults of the Caucasian persuasion clean-cut the article states. The other car sat for more than a week and the psychologist had to destroy it with a sledgehammer before anyone would take the bait; again they appeared to be decent