The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Study

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the Kansas City Preventative Patrol Study and the statistical validity of the findings. The experiment was conducted in 1972 by the Kansas City Police to test the effects of police patrol on the incidence of crime. The study lasted over a year and was evaluated by the Police Foundation, which also provided funding and technical assistance for the study. The purpose of the study was to test the assumption that police patrolling the streets in marked cars can prevent individuals from committing crimes. This paper discusses why the results of the Kansas City Preventative Patrol Study are not statistically valid. The paper is divided into three sections: a brief introduction of the study, the results, and why these results lack statistical value.

From the Paper:

"Conducting the study in Kansas City does not provide an adequate testing ground. In other cities where there is high crime, high unemployment and a substantial homeless population, patrolling would prove beyond a doubt to be effective. Because the study was so limited in scope, it cannot be considered statistically valid that a high visible police presence has no impact on crime in select circumstances. Had the study been conducted across the country in rural and major metropolitan areas in different regions and then compared, there might have been sufficient data to validate the results."

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