The role of police visibility in fear of crime in Finland

Abstract

This article presents a model for police visibility and people's fear of crime. Survey data were collected from 3,245 adults and 977 teenagers in two typical Finnish neighborhoods. A four‐factor model including two visibility factors (patrol‐car‐related activities and police‐on‐foot activities) and two fear of crime factors (crimes against property and crimes against persons) was constructed by structural equation modeling. Respondents who perceived the police more often in on‐foot activities were less fearful of crimes against property. In the teenagers' group, the same effect was found in relation to crimes against persons. In both groups, seeing the police more in patrol‐car‐related activities resulted in increased fear of crimes against persons and property. Our results indicate that a simple act for the police, such as stepping out of the car every now and then, i.e. not only in crime‐related situations, has a positive impact on the fear of crime as expressed by the public.

What citizens think about the police: assessing actual and wished‐for frequency of police activities in one's neighbourhood

“…Several studies (Cordner, 1986;Kelling, 1990;Salmi et al, 2000;Skogan, 1996;Trojanowicz, 1986) showed foot patrolling to be a popular form of police work among the public. Seeing the police more on foot was related to less fear of crime compared with a situation in which the police were seen in patrol-car-related activities (Salmi et al, 2004). In this study, however, patrolling on foot was evaluated to be one of the least frequent activities.…”

“…At the time of the survey, the Turku tradition of 'neighbourhood policing' existed, in varying intensity, already for many years. Despite the fact that the Turku practice did not fulfil all criteria of organized community policing, this practice was clearly different from the one in the Lahti neighbourhood, which mainly took the form of motorized patrol (Salmi, Grönroos, & Keskinen, 2004).…”

Feelings of Safety In The Presence Of the Police, Security Guards, and Police Volunteers

“…The typical study method is to increase the police presence in a certain area through different methods such as foot patrol and assess people's feelings of safety. Most studies show that police presence is related to higher levels of feelings of safety, especially in unsafe areas (see e.g., Balkin and Houlden 1983;Cordner 1986;Knutsson 1995;Pate et al 1986;Police Foundation 1981;Salmi et al 2004;Trojanowicz and Baldwin 1982;Van De Veer et al 2012;Winkel 1986). However, in some of these studies, several police procedures were implemented simultaneously, making it hard to conclude exactly which procedure or procedures actually contributed to the proposed feelings of safety (Cordner 1986;Knutsson 1995;Pate et al 1986;Salmi et al 2004).…”

“…There also seem to be differences in feelings of safety depending on which type of patrol that is implemented, where foot patrol is more effective and perceived more positively than patrolling by vehicle (Police Foundation 1981;Trojanowicz and Baldwin 1982). Patrolling by vehicle can actually induce higher levels of feelings of unsafety, as it is associated with the police responding to incidents of crime and may lead to perceptions of increased crime in the area (Holgersson 2008;Knutsson and Partanen 1986;Rubinstein 1980;Salmi et al 2004;Winkel 1986).…”

“…Some show that females feel safer in police presence than males (Cordner 1986;Van De Veer et al 2012), others show that males feel safer than females (Knutsson 1995), and yet others show similar results for males and females (Winkel 1986) or different results depending on what is being measured (Cordner and Jones 1995). With regard to age, both adults and teenagers feel safer in the presence of foot patrolling police officers, but more fearful in the presence of police vehicles (Salmi et al 2004).…”