The trouble with policing ‘hot spots’
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the past two years, a number of major American cities have experienced spikes in homicides and other violent crimes. Mayors and police chiefs have been under pressure to respond, and some are turning to a new policing strategy called “place network investigations.”
As its name suggests, the strategy focuses on how criminal networks form and thrive in certain geographical places, and it looks at what can be done to try to break up these patterns of crime. Pioneered by academics and now being adopted by cities across the country, it’s the latest in a long line of American policing philosophies that have used data to target crime concentrated in small areas known as hot spots.
Washington Post investigative reporter Amy Brittain started looking into this policing strategy after learning That Louisville police had been using the strategy at the time of Breonna Taylor’s death in March 2020. They have since abandoned it, but Amy was surprised to discover that at least nine other cities are now using the strategy.
In today’s episode of “Post Reports,” Amy looks at why so many police departments are focusing on geography to fight crime, whether that approach works, and if it does, at what cost.
Read more:
Read more of Amy Brittain’s investigation into the policing strategy known as place network investigations.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give a helping hand this holiday season with the Washington Post helping hand. |
| 0:04.6 | This is John Kelly and I'm writing about Bread for the City, Friendship Place, and Miriam's Kitchen over the next few weeks. |
| 0:11.1 | Go to posthelpinghand.com to learn more and donate today. |
| 0:16.0 | In the past two years, a number of major American cities have experienced spikes of homicides. |
| 0:22.4 | And mayors and police chiefs have been under a ton of pressure to do something. |
| 0:27.3 | We have not seen Houston homicide numbers like we're seeing now in decades. |
| 0:31.6 | Homicides in the city of Los Angeles, they're up 11.8%. |
| 0:35.4 | The Bataruj area of street port, Alexandria, and Lafayette all had record number of homicides in 2021. |
| 0:41.4 | Philadelphia's violence is not showing any signs of slowing down. |
| 0:45.4 | The city has now clocked 99 homicides just so far this year. |
| 0:50.8 | In response, some of these officials are turning to a new policing strategy called police network investigations. |
| 0:57.6 | And it's just what the name would suggest. |
| 1:00.1 | It's a philosophy that focuses on places and how places allow criminal networks to form and to thrive. |
| 1:07.3 | And what can be done to try to break up these patterns of crime? |
| 1:11.1 | That's investigative reporter Amy Britton. |
| 1:13.8 | She has been reporting on policing for the post and she noticed a pattern. |
| 1:18.0 | Several police departments in large cities around the country all seem to be turning to this strategy. |
| 1:24.4 | But to her, that was a surprise. |
| 1:27.4 | As I learned in my reporting, it has a complicated history and associations with the tragic case. |
| 1:32.9 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:43.4 | I'm Martin Powers. |
| 1:48.1 | It's Wednesday, April 20th. |
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