The effect of police presence on public fear reduction and satisfaction: A review of the literature

Abstract

This paper attempts to answer two questions. First, we are interested in the extent to which the presence of the police reduces public fear of crime. Second, we examine the link between police presence and public satisfaction with the police. We explore both of these topics from the existing research literature where studies were conducted using a quasi-experimental design to measure police presence. More specifically, we include research where police presence is depicted according to either targeted patrol practices, proactive/aggressive arrest projects, and /or comprehensive, integrating police strategies (i.e., community policing ). Our examination of the research literature leads us to conclude that police presence does have a strong impact on public fear reduction. In addition, proactive or/and community policing strategies appear to us to demonstrate the strongest impact on fear reduction among residents. Simultaneously, we found that public satisfaction is strongly associated with the success of a fear reduction program. In other words, a successful fear reduction program can increase public satisfaction with police services.

Keywords:

• Police presence
• Fear of crime
• Victimization model
• Social disorder model
• Social integration model