An evaluation of a hot spot policing programme in four Argentinian cities

In 2017, hot spot policing interventions were implemented in four cities in Argentina: La Plata, Morón, Santa Fe and Tres de Febrero. Each intervention was similarly designed, organized and implemented. Results differed between cities. La Plata experienced the largest decreases, including a significant 31% decrease in robbery (while controlling for geographic displacement), whereas in other cities, a mix of non-significant decreases and increases in robbery and theft were observed. No displacement was observed to assaults or vehicle crime. The differences in impact between cities were likely to be associated with differences in the project management of each intervention

The Spatial Concentration and Dispersion of Homicide during a Period of Homicide Increase in Brazil

This study applies the principles of measuring micro-place crime concentration and the spatial dispersion of crime increase to the geographic unit of cities in Brazil. We identify that a small number of cities account for a large cumulative proportion of homicides, and that during a period of homicide increase 30 cities out of 5570 accounted for the equivalent national increase in homicides. The majority of the 30 cities were not established high homicide cities but instead were new emerging centers of homicide that neighbor high homicide cities. We suggest the findings can be used to better target effective programs for decreasing homicides

Improving the Creation of Hot Spot Policing Patrol Routes: Comparing Cognitive Heuristic Performance to an Automated Spatial Computation Approach

Hot spot policing involves the deployment of police patrols to places where high levels of crime have previously concentrated. The creation of patrol routes in these hot spots is mainly a manual process that involves using the results from an analysis of spatial patterns of crime to identify the areas and draw the routes that police officers are required to patrol. In this article we introduce a computational approach for automating the creation of hot spot policing patrol routes. The computational techniques we introduce created patrol routes that covered areas of higher levels of crime than an equivalent manual approach for creating hot spot policing patrol routes, and were more efficient in how they covered crime hot spots. Although the evidence on hot spot policing interventions shows they are effective in decreasing crime, the findings from the current research suggest that the impact of these interventions can potentially be greater when using the computational approaches that we introduce for creating hot spot policing patrol routes