During the mid-70’s, the state of New Jersey came up with a program called “Safe and Clean neighborhood Program.” This program was designed to help better the quality of the community life in twenty-eight cities. For part of the program, the state had provided money to help some of the cities take police officers out of their patrol cars and assign them to walking beats. Many state officials were enthusiastic to use foot patrol as a way to cut down the crime rates, however many police chiefs were doubtful. In the police force, foot patrols had been discredited. A main problem for foot patrols was the fact that it reduced the mobility of the police and it weakened headquarters control over patrol officers. Many police officers themselves didn’t like foot patrol. They disliked it for reasons such as; it was hard work, it kept them outside on cold and rainy nights, and it reduced their chances for making a good sting. Seeing as how the state was going to be the one providing the money to conduct the program, the police departments agreed to go along with it.
After fives years of the program’s launch, the Police Foundation in Washington D.C., published an evaluation of the foot patrol project, the results were a shock to a lot of people. Foot patrol had not reduced the crime rates, but the residents of the foot-patrolled areas seemed to feel more secure then persons in other areas. People had tended to believe that crime had been reduced and took fewer steps in protecting themselves from possible crime (ex: staying at home with the doors unlocked).
The Essay on Police Officers Henkle State
Police: Man attacked trooper with chain saw Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Posted: 8: 34 AM EST (1334 GMT) WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man was shot and killed by police Monday after he ignored pepper spray and officers' commands and attacked a state trooper with a chain saw, authorities said. At least 13 bullets struck William Henkle after state and local officers who had surrounded him ...
Also, it was found that citizens in the foot-patrolled areas had a more favorable opinion of the police than did those people living elsewhere. The officers walking the beats had higher morale, greater job satisfaction, and a more favorable attitude toward citizens in their neighborhoods than did officers assigned to patrol cars.
Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window is broken on a building and not repaired, the remaining windows will soon all be broken. This is true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones. Window breaking doesn’t not necessarily occur on a large scale because some area are inhabited by determined “window-breakers” whereas other are populated by “window-lovers”; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.
A Stanford psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, reported in 1969 on some experiments testing the validity of the broken windows theory. He had placed an automobile without license plates parked with its hood up on a street in the Bronx and one on a street in Palo Alto, California. The car in the Bronx was attacked by “vandals” within ten minutes of its “abandonment”. The first to arrive were a family of three- a father, mother, and young son- that removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty-four hours, virtually everything of value was stripped from the car. Random destruction soon began- windows were smashed, parts torn off, upholstery ripped apart. Children began to use the car as a playground. Most of the adult “vandals” were well dressed, apparently clean cut whites. The car in Palo Alto sat untouched for more then a week. Zimbardo smashed a part of the car in Palo Alto with a sledgehammer and soon passersby were joining in. Within a few hours, the car had been turned upside down and utterly destroyed. Again, The “vandals” appeared to be primarily respectable whites.
Untended property becomes fair game for people who are looking to have fun or and even for people who normally wouldn’t dream of doing such things. These people would probably consider themselves as law-abiding citizens. Because of the environment of the community in the Bronx, its secrecy, the frequency with which cars are abandoned and things are stolen or broken, the past experience of “nobody caring”, vandalism begins more quickly then it does in staid Palo Alto, where people have come to believe that private possessions are cared for, and that mischievous behavior is costly.
The Homework on Window Cars Side Street
The big window in front of my eyes is what I look at everyday before my English class. I do not know how often this window is cleaned, but looking at it, I see the dirt, that has been added up there with time. It has the dried marks of rain that are covered with street's dust. It has finger marks from the inside. Flies are enjoying it's dirty smell. Outside the window, on the left, I see the other ...
