The challenge
Aggressive hot-spot policing can cut crime but erode residents' trust in police.
The case
Between 2017 and 2020, police in Tucson (Arizona), Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Houston (Texas) took part in a trial led by David Weisburd and colleagues. Researchers randomly assigned 120 crime hot spots, and 28 officers, to either procedural justice training or standard practice. Trained officers showed more procedurally just behaviour in field observations and made many fewer arrests. Residents of trained-officer hot spots were significantly less likely to see police as harassing people or using unnecessary force, though wider ratings of police legitimacy did not differ significantly. Crime incidents fell by a relative 14% in the procedural justice hot spots during the experiment.
Why it worked
Training officers to explain, listen and show respect changed their street behaviour, and fewer arrests did not mean more crime. Broader legitimacy is slower to move than perceptions of specific abuses.
Sources
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