Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities

This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to "all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred." Currently, proactive policing strategies are widely used in the United States. The report discusses the data and methodological gaps regarding the effects of various forms of proactive policing on crime, whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner, whether they comply with legal parameters, and how communities react.