Junior Year - Week Six

KANSAS CITY POLICE PREVENTIVE PATROL EXPERIMENT was an experiment to see if the public and citizens felt better and safer when a patrol car was driving through their development or down their streets. They had researchers and writers drive along with officers in a high crime rate area and record what they saw and experienced for one year. While they were out riding along with different officers in different areas they would randomly survey citizens off the street to see what they thought. Researchers had come back and reviewed all there data. In the end the only thing they had discovered was that the KANSAS CITY POLICE EXPERIMENT had not worked. When a citizen had seen more police cars patrolling they never felt safer, they feared that the crime rate was increasing.  The crime rate didn’t increase nor did it decrease it had just been a waste or resources for the police department. The tax dollars had been spent because some of the neighborhoods had said they wanted to see more police cars patrolling, when in reality it feared citizens more than calmed their feelings of crime.

PHILADELPHIA FOOT PATROL EXPERIMENT had occurred in Philadelphia and had happened after KANSAS CITY POLICE PREVENTIVE PATROL EXPERIMENT. In this experiment they had placed pairs of officers together in a target area. Along with the KANSAS CITY POLICE EXPERIMENT the officers were placed in high crime rate areas. These officers were on foot hence the name of the experiment and walked throughout their target areas, both shifts.  In the end of this experiment researchers had discovered that the officers were more approachable than the ones in police cars and less visible which is good and bad. But the experiment had worked increasingly better than the KANSAS CITY one.  The violent crime rate had decreased and the drug related arrest had increased. The officers saw where and when the drugs were being sold and to who. They patrolled and when an officer is walking around there are not going to be gang related fights or break ins. The patrolling actually worked in the high crime rate areas.

This week we got to take a field trip to the Olmsted Township Police Station, while on this visit we had the chance to ask officers and the lieutenant about the KANSAS CITY POLICE PREVENTIVE EXPERIMENT and the PHILADELPHIA FOOT PATROL EXPERIMENT. While at the police station we asked about the PHILADELPHIA FOOT PATROL EXPERIMENT and learned about that the lieutenant would like to use the foot patrol because he believes that the experiment is accurate and would actually help in the public.  While at the police station we learned about all the evidence and meet the chief of police and detectives.  Lieutenant Vanyo answered all the questions we had and allowed us to see everything that S.W.A.T would wear and weapons they would use.  We saw the dispatch center and the cruisers and I learned that the police department has a bicycle for police use and the officers need to take certification classes in order to patrol the neighborhoods.  The police department has a small station but a lot more stuff to deal with throughout the small community that I live than I expected.

When you have adrenaline running through your body it makes it slightly difficult to remember the training that we have had over the first six weeks of Criminal Justice.  Mr. Lavery allowed us to experience that. We were placed in the hallway while four students had stayed in the room.  The officers had or the students in the hallways had to do push ups and jog in place until their name was called. Once the students name was called the officer was placed in the room and had to do escort position without force and with little force. The next step was to do an arm-bar take down while a person was standing and with no resisting. The last step was the arm-bar take down while a person was sitting in a chair. While trying to do all of these it was slightly difficult because you have a reverse electrical stimulus which makes it hard for some to formulate a chemical stimulus because electrical over powers chemical. When it was all done the student realized that it is slightly hard to remember the English words that we have been speaking our whole life and the Spanish we just learned. It was a great experience for the student to have.