In today’s policing environment, it is smart to focus on crime prevention as a foundational strategy. FBI’s 2016 Crime in the United States report revealed that violent crime is on the increase—2016 had the highest single-year spike in violent crime in 25 years—yet burglary and property crime figures are continuing to trend down.¹ Active and successful crime prevention programs not only reduce crime and save lives, but they also reduce workload for patrol officers and detectives and provide opportunities for positive interactions with the public. In almost all crime prevention programs, there usually is some type of community outreach or educational element that seeks to establish positive interactions between the police and the many community groups that make up the neighborhood with the hope of reducing crime. Successful crime prevention programs demonstrate strong partnerships and show communities that their police executives are contemporary leaders who are in touch with the needs of the community members.

Crime prevention strategies do not need to break the budget or fit into a single mold; however, most crime prevention programs will fall into one or more of four broad approaches.

• community involvement and community-police partnerships
• hot spot enforcement to reduce fear and garner trust
• environmental design
• situational awareness and education

Likewise, crime prevention today is often being led by community leaders, nonprofit organizations, localities, states, provinces, and businesses, as demonstrated by these examples.

 Colorado

In Colorado, as in many parts of the United States, crime prevention is primarily addressed by local law enforcement agencies with a focus on the specific types of crime that are most significant in their localities. Innovative crime prevention programs are born from necessity and shaped by available resources and local partnerships. Many municipalities focus on neighborhood watch programs, citizen police academies, and similar community-based programs:

• senior citizen police academies
• youth police academies
• Coffee with a Cop
• National Night Out
• prescription drug drop-off locations
• home and business security surveys
• vacation property checks
• safe driving programs for youth and chronic offenders

Small and large localities in Colorado working to address specific crime prevention needs often join crime prevention associations, such as the Colorado Crime Prevention Association, which lists 26 agency members in addition to individual members on their website. Many states and local regions have similar organizations that provide free resources and networking to prevention practitioners. Additionally, free and low-cost resources from nonprofit organizations such as the National Crime Prevention Council and the IACP supplement programs with current training and information.²

Virginia

Crime Prevention Specialists

Another method is the management of crime prevention by state government. A significant value of a state-managed program is the continuity of services and standardized training across the state. Virginia’s approach makes prevention training available in all regions of the state and rewards proactive efforts. Additionally, in 1994, Virginia codified the certification of crime prevention specialists.³ Virginia’s approach specifies the eligibility and minimum training requirements for certification, as well as requirements for recertification every three years. Uniformity of skills is ensured through training and eligibility requirements.⁴ Virginia has maintained more than 500 certified specialists since 1996 and allows sworn, non-sworn, and volunteers at law enforcement agencies to apply for certification.

Using trained volunteers is an excellent way of connecting with the community, improving trust, and increasing available resources. In 2009, as a result of crime prevention specialist outreach and training, the city of Virginia Beach had 250 volunteers who donated 16,368 hours in one year, saving the city an estimated $336,000.⁵

Crime prevention specialists and their regional counterparts have been proactive in creating shared tools and are called upon as resources to address crime trends and to educate others. The following points are examples of their community impact:

• In 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, crime prevention specialists created a tool to assist in the anticipated increase in requests for security assessments. Later it was revealed that law enforcement executives reported a 36 percent increase in requests for business assessments and a 61 percent increase relative to school and church security assessments.⁶
• In 2013, specialists served as a resource to the Governor’s School Violence Task Force. The task force recommended a change in legislation to require a checklist be conducted on all public schools utilizing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. This checklist was designed by a crime prevention specialist. Additionally, several crime prevention specialists, architects, and other professionals developed a recommendation document for newly built schools.⁷
• In 2014, recognizing the upward trend of metal theft, specialists collaborated with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) to develop a model metal theft prevention course, which later led to the creation by ISRI of a Law Enforcement Advisory Council including the then-president of the IACP, then-executive director of the National Sheriff’s Association, a state attorney general, a prosecutor, and crime prevention specialists, among others.⁸
• In 2015, recognizing the need to address faith organizations from a prevention viewpoint, specialists developed a one-day training session that is taught on average six times a year, reaching more than 1,000 law enforcement and faith leaders.

One of the first of its kind in the United States, the Certified Crime Prevention Community program encourages localities to develop and implement collaborative community safety plans within a flexible framework. It provides an ongoing process through which communities can reassess and update their plans to address emerging community safety issues.⁹

After recognizing the proactive programming that many of Virginia’s colleges and universities are engaged in and in following up on the request from the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators for a similar recognition program for campuses, the Certified Crime Prevention Campus program was introduced in June 2013.¹⁰ Small towns, large cities, counties, large universities, and a community college are included among those certified across the two programs. Both are voluntary programs that offer tangible and intangible benefits.

School and Campus Safety

Created in 2000, the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety (VCSCS), located within the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, focuses on improving and enhancing safety by addressing topics that affect law enforcement, schools, and institutions of higher education. The VCSCS partners with Virginia’s Department of Education and is a resource and training center for information and research about national and statewide safety efforts and initiatives in K–12 schools and higher education institutions.¹¹ Virginia statutes require that all public schools complete an annual safety audit.¹² The audit is a written assessment of the safety conditions in each public school, intended to accomplish two objectives:

• identify and, if necessary, develop solutions for physical safety concerns, including building security issues; and
• identify and evaluate any patterns of student safety concerns occurring on school property or at school-sponsored events.

Virginia’s public school boards are also required to annually review the written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans of each school they supervise and to provide copies of such plans to the chief law enforcement officer, the fire chief, the chief emergency medical services official, and the emergency management official of the locality.

 Canada

Crime prevention projects and initiatives in Canada that are garnering excellent results concentrate on improving the overall health and wellness of communities. The National Crime Prevention Strategy provides a policy framework for the implementation of crime prevention interventions in Canada. It is administered by the National Crime Prevention Centre in the Community Safety and Partnerships Branch of Public Safety Canada and managed in collaboration with the provinces and territories.¹³ The primary role of this national-level program is to aid the implementation and sustainability of effective crime prevention programs; provide research; and, in some cases, facilitate grant funding.

One Canadian initiative is the Clearwater River Dene Nation (CRDN) Project Venture in Clearwater River Dene Nation and La Loche, Saskatchewan, which launched on July 25, 2017. Project Venture is an extensive education program that has been widely successful in empowering First Nations youth to become positive leaders in their communities. The CRDN Project Venture is a community-based initiative that targets up to 450 First Nations youth who are exposed to or at risk of criminal behaviors or activities.

The program’s goal is to prevent and reduce substance abuse and related crime and interpersonal violence. CRDN strives to achieve these goals through in-school and after-school curricula, recreational and skill-building activities, community service learning, peer leadership, counseling, and support. One of the project’s major strengths is its emphasis on culturally relevant activities that encompass Dene beliefs, traditions, values, and customs. Developing positive social skills by combining traditional and modern modalities of learning is an effective intervention tool that targets multiple risk factors associated with crime.

California

Law enforcement in California has conceived an innovative approach to crime prevention by leveraging technology—specifically GPS—to identify and arrest career criminals. The process starts by partnering crime prevention specialists with crime analysts, patrol officers, and police detectives to create directed arrest strategies that impact serial crimes. The crime prevention specialists provide neighborhood intelligence on crime, while the crime analysts provide the statistical data on areas where serial offenses are being reported. The crime prevention intelligence is critical at this point, because many, if not most, of the property crime offenses never make it to the police blotter. Crime prevention specialists get direct feedback from their community contacts that can help the police understand where chronic, underreported problems are happening in a neighborhood. The crime statistics usually bolster that intelligence information.

Patrol officers and detectives then select the neighborhoods or businesses to deploy clandestine GPS devices inside whatever happens to be the type of property that’s currently being stolen. The key is placing the tracking technology in or on the “vessel of the day” that’s hot on the thieves’ list of items stolen (e.g., vehicles, laptops, bicycles).

In November 2017, Redland, California, Police Department (RPD) Assistant Chief of Police Travis Martinez wrote an article that chronicled the agency’s success in using GPS to address serial crime trends.¹⁴ Redlands is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Due to a number of factors, property crimes, especially car burglaries, were clearly rising in the jurisdiction, and RPD decided to use GPS technology as a solution to drive arrests of serial offenders, thus preventing them from committing future crimes.

In their first deployment, RPD detectives placed a small clandestine GPS tracker inside a laptop computer, which was left in a locked car parked at a fitness center. Within 45 minutes, the car’s window was smashed, and the GPS-baited laptop was stolen. Within 10 minutes, the GPS tracker led police to the thieves who were arrested. Ten previous car burglaries were connected to this pair. Crime prevention through directed arrests had a successful start in Redlands.

As the Redlands success was shared, other agencies followed suit, including Nassau County, New York; Miami-Dade Country, Florida; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.¹⁵

San Francisco, California, Police Department (SFPD) had a serial robber attacking several downtown McDonald’s restaurants during the late-night and early-morning hours. The offender was armed and had abused some employees, and he always cleared out the stores’ safes, so losses were mounting and there was a clear danger to the employees of the chain. These crimes were believed to be related to robberies at other fast-food restaurants across the Bay Area. However, having detective stakeouts at all possible targets was not a financially feasible approach. By collaborating with the McDonald’s security team and applying a problem-oriented policing approach, SFPD arranged to deploy GPS cash-tracking devices in the cash drawers and safes in every McDonald’s in the city. Within about a week, the robber returned to attack the downtown McDonald’s locations. He struck at 4:15 a.m., held everyone at gunpoint, and fled with all the money in the store, including the night deposits from the safe. He also unwittingly left with the GPS cash trackers, which led to his arrest as he fled over the Bay Bridge into Oakland. This individual was convicted of all the McDonald’s robberies and with the robberies of several other Bay Area restaurants.

Looking back to RPD, they analyzed the type of offenders they were arresting and then examined the local and regional crime statistics to determine the success of their electronic stakeouts. From a modest deployment of 3 GPS devices deployed each day, they’d increased the number to 30 devices.¹⁶ In addition to using them for (voluntary) tracking of confidential informants clandestine operations, and organized crime stings, RPD selected the following theft targets or locations for most effectively deploying GPS trackers for crime prevention:

• convenience store cash or goods
• vehicles
• commercial safes
• bicycles
• tires (Wal-Mart trucks)
• construction sites
• fire hydrants
• pharmacies
• vending machines
• metal and wires
• USPS and UPS/FedEx mail
• cigarettes
• laptops at coffee shops
• iPhones
• cemeteries
• gardeners’ trucks

In the first year, use of the GPS trackers led to the arrest of 86 felons. Of the 79 adults arrested, 77 had previous arrests; 24 of these adults were currently out on parole or probation. Additionally, 12 of these adults had stolen property on them from other crimes, and 19 of them had outstanding warrants for their arrest. Those 77 convicted felons had a total of 1,262 prior arrests, with an average of 16.4 arrests each.¹⁷ That is nothing short of a staggering number. Removing these career repeat offenders supports the theory that GPS tracking is a solid crime prevention strategy.

When Redlands analyzed their crime prevention success by reviewing their UCR crime stats, they found vehicle burglary was reduced 36 percent from 2010 to 2014, while the regional increase was about 11 percent. Concurrently, while robberies were also on the rise in the region, Redlands had reduced their armed robberies by 14 percent.¹⁸ A double-digit crime-prevention result achieved for a fraction of the cost of other programs.

Conclusion

In today’s cost-restricted policing world, police commanders are taking innovative and cost-effective approaches to preventing crime in their communities. Targeting serial offenders for arrests prevents numerous crimes from ever occurring in the first place. While preventative programs may be provided by localities, states, provinces, or transnationally, the traditional policing model places the local police at the center of a hub that connects all elements of government and community services in addressing quality-of-life concerns. Virtually all prevention programs will address quality of life in some way, whether by recommending target-hardening techniques or enhancing community trust by increasing collective efficacy.

Crime prevention through community trust building, partnerships, enforcement, and environmental and situational awareness and education is the most cost-effective way of achieving success. Prevention is proactive; it is targeted; it addresses quality of life; and it is adaptable. Instructions and police orders issued by the commissioners at Scotland Yard in 1829–1830, reiterating Sir Robert Peel’s philosophy. It is as relevant to law enforcement today as it was in Peel’s lifetime, “It should be understood, at the outset, that the principle object to be attained is the prevention of crime.”¹⁹ d

Notes:

¹ Federal Bureau of Investigation, “About Crime in the U.S.” Crime in the United States, 2016.

²  National Crime Prevention Council; International Association of Chiefs of Police.

³ VA Code § 9.1-161.

⁴ Title 6 VA Admin Code §§ 20-180-30, 40, 50, 60.

⁵ Richard L. Arrington, The Value of Volunteers in a Budget Crisis (Richmond, VA: Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, 2010).

⁶ John G. Schuiteman, “Crime Prevention in Virginia,” The Virginia Newsletter 85, no. 3 (May 2009).

⁷ VA Code § 22.1-279.8.

⁸ StopMetalsTheft.org, “Tools: Law Enforcement.”

⁹ Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), “Programs: Law Enforcement Programs.”

¹⁰ Virginia DCJS, “Programs: Law Enforcement Programs.”

¹¹ Virginia DCJS, “Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety.”

¹² VA Code § 22.1-279.8.

¹³ Public Safety Canada, “Crime Prevention.”

¹⁴ Travis Martinez, “Using GPS Technology to Investigate Crime Trends,” Police Foundation, November 2017.

¹⁵ Richard T. Long, “Crime Prevention Through Targeted Arrest Strategies,” Police Chief Online, October 23, 2020. .  

¹⁶ Long, “Crime Prevention Through Targeted Arrest Strategies”; Martinez, “Using GPS Technology to Investigate Crime Trends.”

¹⁷ Martinez, “Using GPS Technology to Investigate Crime Trends.”

¹⁸ Jennifer L. Truman and Lynn Langton, Criminal Victimization, 2014 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015).

¹⁹ J. L. Lyman, “The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 55, no. 1 (Spring 1964): 153.