Repeat Calls for Service: Policing the "Hot Spots" (From Police and Policing: Contemporary Issues, P 150-165, 1989, Dennis Jay Kenney, ed. -- See NCJ-121271)

• NCJ Number: 121283
• Author(s): L W Sherman
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 86-IJ-CX-0037
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: Praeger Publishers
• Publication Type: Program Description (Demonstrative)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data showing that a small number of locations accounted for a large proportion of calls for service to the Minneapolis Police Department led to the establishment of an experiment in which the police identified and focused their efforts on these locations.

Abstract

The Minneapolis RECAP (repeat call address policing) project represented a collaborative project of the Crime Control Institute and the Minneapolis Police Department. It obtained NIJ funding to analyze the patterns and concentrations of repeat calls and to select, train, and evaluate the effectiveness of a small RECAP unit of police officers devoting full time to proactive policing of the most chronic locations in the city. The analysis proved much more difficult than expected, but it revealed substantial concentrations of calls. The RECAP strategy began in 1987 when a team of five officers formed a unit designed to solve the problems leading to repeat calls at certain locations. The quality of the group provides reason for optimism that it will succeed in reducing the calls for service. Tables and 11 references.