Book Description

V. 1. The relationship between police response time, outcomes of calls for police assistance, and citizen crime reporting is analyzed in a study performed in Kansas City, Missouri. This study was conceived and developed to test the assumption that responding quickly to calls for police service will produce the most desirable outcomes, and to identify those problems and patterns which might affect how quickly a citizen reports a need for police service. The design of the study and data collection spanned 3 years, although the primary data were collected during 1975, in Kansas City. Trained civilian observers accompanied officers into the field to collect data on travel times and on-scene activities, while tape analysts collected dispatch time data by timing telephone and radio exchanges recorded by the communications unit. Interviewers questioned victims of crimes and citizens who reported crime and noncrime incidents or requested police service. The calls for service making up the data base came primarily from a target area selected for its high rates of robberies and aggravated assaults. The data covered the entire spectrum of police service, including both Part I and Part II crime calls, potential and noncrime calls, and traffic accidents. An introduction to the project is provided, and the setting of the subject area and the search are described. The examination of the sample design and the data collection process is illustrated by tables. -- v. 2. The analysis and findings of a Kansas City, Missouri. Study of the relationship between police response time, outcomes of calls for police assistance, and citizens, crime reporting are presented. This research was initiated to evaluate assumptions regarding rapid police response as an effective operational strategy and to identify problems and patterns which account for citizen delays in reporting crimes to the police. To test these assumptions, response time was conceptualized as consisting of three intervals: citizen reporting, communication dispatching, and police travel time. Variations in these intervals were then analyzed to see how they affected the probability of making an on-scene arrest, contacting a witness on-scene, and how they affected recovery from injuries sustained during the commission of Part I crimes. Additionally, the problems citizens encounter when reporting crimes and the patterns or actions citizens follow prior to reporting were identified and analyzed for their effects on reporting delays. Relationships between citizens' social characteristics and both reporting time and problems and patterns were analyzed. To see if the length of response time affected citizen satisfaction, police response times were again analyzed, with other factors considered to be possible determinants of citizen satisfaction. These factors included citizens' social characteristics, how long citizens expected response to be, citizens' perceptions of how long the response actually took, and how important citizens thought response time was to the outcomes of the incident they reported or in which they were involved. Statistical analysis is presented regarding response time, arrest, the effects of patrol procedures on response times and crime outcomes, witness availability, citizen injury, problems and patterns in reporting, the process of reporting, and citizen satisfaction; statistical summaries of each of these subject areas are provided in individual appendixes. Results indicate that reporting time was longer than either the time taken to dispatch a call or the time taken to travel to a call, and nearly as long as the combined time taken to dispatch and travel to a call. Response time was found to be unrelated to the probability of making an arrest or locating a witness for the large proportion of Part I crimes that were discovered after the crime had occurred. For those crimes involving a victim or witness, reporting time was the strongest time determinant of arrest and witness availability. Travel time generally had a limited effect on these outcomes, though for some types of crime the influence was strong. Citizen satisfaction was more closely related to citizens' expectations and perceptions about response time than actual response time. Problems citizens encounter and patterns they follow in reporting crime were identified and were found to produce delay in contacting police. Voluntary actions by citizens explained more delay in reporting than did problems experienced by citizens in contacting the police.