Citizen Contact Patrol - The Houston Field Test Executive Summary

• NCJ Number: 106340
• Author(s): M A Wycoff; W G Skogan; A M Pate; L W Sherman
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 22 pages
• Grant Number(s): 83-IJ-CX-0003
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation

Annotation

This report summarizes a field test conducted by the Houston Police Department in collaboration with the Police Foundation that examined the impact of police officers initiating informal personal contacts with citizens in residences, businesses, streets, and parking lots.

Abstract

The executive summary describes the organization of the Citizen Contact Program and the area it served. The number, nature, and styles of police-citizen contacts are detailed. The report also highlights the evaluation design and its conclusions regarding the program's effects. In the 1 square-mile test area, police made face-to-face contacts equal to some 14 percent of the population and 37 percent of the occupied housing units. The contacts were brief, friendly efforts to get acquainted and solicit citizens' views about local problems. After 10 months of Citizen Contact Patrol in 1983-1984, the evaluation found that residents in the test neighborhood, compared to a matched area where no new programs were introduced, had significantly lower levels of property crime victimization, fear of crime, perceptions of disorder in the area, and estimations of police aggressiveness. Persons exposed to the program reported significantly higher satisfaction with the area and with police service. Tables and 6 references. (Author summary modified)