Exploring Officer Perspectives on Hot Spots Policing and Its Impact on Legitimacy and Community-Relations

• In Event: Community Engagement, Neighborhoods, and Policing

Abstract

Hot spots policing is a widely adopted and empirically-supported approach to reducing concentrated crime problems. Numerous studies suggest that hot spots policing reduces crime without producing long-lasting harmful effects on public perceptions of police and may even result in more positive assessments of police. Thus, adopting the approach may have multiple benefits. However, a study in Britain examining officers’ attitudes toward hot spots policing reported that line officers implementing it felt resistant to the perceived reduced autonomy imposed on their activities by the strategy, felt less moral alignment with the police agency, and their sense of procedural justice from supervisors was dampened relative to peers who had not implemented hot spots policing. They rightly asserted concern that these views among line officers could threaten the sustainability and implementation of hot spots policing. The current study, conducted in the United States, examines: (1) officers views about hot spots policing before and after implementation, (2) differential assessments of the necessary resources and community impact based on the nature of activities they conducted in hot spots, and (3) explores how engaging in hot spots policing may relate to self-legitimacy, perceived effectiveness of police, and job satisfaction.

Author

• Tammy Rinehart Kochel, Southern Illinois University Carbondale