Chiefs react to report on proactive policing

Study says it reduces crime; local department employ its techniques

It wasn’t too long ago, historically speaking, that police officers were reactive in nature, responding to calls and working on investigations but taking few steps beyond that to combat crime.

Over the past few decades, however, departments across the country increasingly have incorporated tenets of proactive policing, or policing that strategically aims to prevent or reduce crime.

In a report released last week, a committee appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that many of the techniques successfully reduce crime in the short term and don’t significantly alter residents’ opinions of cops.

That’s welcome news to local police departments, most of which have embraced at least some proactive policing methods over the years.

The report, it should be noted, says there is too little data to determine the long-term impacts of proactive policing. It implores researchers to explore whether police, aggressively searching to deter criminal activity, now are more likely to violate the Fourth Amendment. And it doesn’t form an opinion on whether racial biases impact where and how police employ such techniques. Authors said the lack of evidence in that regard is “startling.”

Four approaches to community policing are listed in the report: place-based, problem-solving, person-focused and community-based. Some of the more commonly known methods include hot spots policing, a place-based method in which officers focus on high-crime locations;