Essay Questions (Law Enforcement)
Answer the following questions based upon the following statement.
The Kansas City Gun Experiment in 1992 -1993 used intensive police patrols directed to an 80-block hotspot area where the homicide rate was 20 times the national average. It represented a unique approach to crime prevention through preventive patrol.
1. Is this approach different from traditional patrol? If so how? If not, how is it similar? What did patrol officers in this experiment do that was different from what basic patrol officers do? What was the relationship between the officers in this experiment and other patrol officers?
2. This experiment was a one-time special project. Could this approach be integrated into a police department on a permanent basis? What problems would you anticipate? How could those problems be overcome through careful planning and administration?
3. Could the tactics used in Kansas City work in the environment of today? Are there any police strategies in use today that employ the tactics, either in total or in part that were used in Kansas City? Could they be successful? Define success as you envision it.
4. Do some police departments still engage in the "aggressive preventative patrol" strategies that led to the urban riots of the 1960s and the publishing of the 1968"Kerner Commission Report? Are there any similarities or differences between those strategies and the strategies used in the Kansas City Gun Experiment?
5. How has policing changed since the 1960s? What strategies, tactics or philosophies in use today can be said to be the same? What can be said to be different? What should police do today to reduce the potential for urban riots occurring again?
There is no set word limit for the answers; just make sure that each answer to each question is fully explained. 2 to 3 references each question.