Police in Australia - issues and innovations in Australian policing (case studies)

Shopfront policing

Senior Sergeant A J Schofield and Inspector T Lake
Queensland Police Service

Robert Peel (1788-1850) was born in Bury, Lancashire, England and educated at Oxford University. Whilst Robert Peel is best known for the creation of the London Metropolitan Police Force (affectionately called the "Bobbies"), he was also a British Prime Minister (1834-1835) and the founder of the Modern Conservative Party in Great Britain.

In 1829, whilst developing the Metropolitan Police Force, Peel devised his now well known "Nine Principles of Policing". In Principle Seven he states:

To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police: the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

In these early days of policing, a policeman maintained contact with the community, both on the "beat" and when interacting and socialising; his mere presence making people feel safer in their work and living environment.

People lived and worked within small localised communities. Such was the lifestyle that everybody knew everybody's business; where they worked, played, etc. But most of all, people knew their local beat police officer, their movements and their whereabouts at any given time. They also shared information with them on a regular basis. What has changed since then?

Technological advances

Mr John Avery, a former NSW Police Commissioner, stated that "information is the lifeblood of Policing and almost 95 per cent of all crimes are solved by information being provided to investigating police." He also suggested that if investigating police are not at the crime scene within 5 minutes of the incident, then there was a 90 per cent chance of the crime remaining unsolved.

Dr Robert Putnam, Dillon Professor of International Affairs at Harvard, during a keynote speech to a Political Science Association AGM recently stated: "... that trust and civic participation are the cornerstone of democracy." He continued:

that we are a society glued to and enslaved by television, to such an extent that we can no longer function in a normal cooperative way.

Television has damned the natural flow of human contact that builds friendships, neighbourhoods and ultimately nations. Millions of well educated, normal human beings barely speak to others outside of work or shopping trips (Courier Mail, 11 September 1995).

Technologically, the telephone was the first major influence on policing before television. The telephone made it easier to locate police and police encouraged its use. There was no longer any need to go and locate the beat police officer. Police began to respond to calls, go to the scene of incidents and become more involved with personal problems. They began to encounter "ordinary" people less and "problem" people more often (Braiden 1985, p. 8).

After the telephone came the automobile and then two-way radio. Police continued to have contact only with "problem" people, not only the criminal element but those persons unable to care for themselves (drunks, addicts and so on). Police became reactive - waiting for something to happen, and then were tasked to go and resolve it.

Television, video, fax machines and, in recent years, the Internet have brought information into the work and living environment. Cable TV and technology such as home shopping/banking are only going to further isolate the police officer from his local community.

An analysis of one's own lifestyle puts Dr Putnam's address into perspective. In any 24- hour period the demands society places on its community are shared between work, associated travel and sleep. Other significant aspects of daily life include shopping, and socialising at home with our families and friends. When we consider feelings of personal safety, it is probably fair to say that the majority of our community feel safe at home and at work. However, it is quite likely that in today's society there are many in the community, especially the aged and members of the female population, who feel unsafe or vulnerable travelling to/from work, or when outside the home for entertaining and shopping requirements.

Fear of crime

The Victims of Crime Survey (1991) conducted by the Queensland State Government Statistician showed that 21 per cent of all assaults occur in shopping and business areas; similarly, 15 per cent of all threats of violence, 11 per cent of all deliberate damage and 39 per cent of thefts from the person.

What advanced technology has brought to policing is a society of police officers who are primarily focused on reacting to incidents and whose professionalism and performance is benchmarked by statistical data, i.e., by the number of responses, incidents, arrests and clear up rate. In fact, it could be argued that the performance of the Queensland Police Service is measured on an annual basis by the production of an Annual Report based solely on statistical data.

The "Police Beat" Shopfronts constitute part of a wider campaign to move more police away from desks and offices and put them back into our streets and shops. By providing a visible, approachable presence at shopping centres, police are asking local residents to become partners in crime prevention.

Community involvement

In Queensland, community policing involves the police and community working together to identify opportunities for crime prevention and to solve policing problems. A "community" is people in social interaction in a geographical area, but it can also include people of the same race, religion etc., people in business, retailers, shopping centres and so on (Booth, Crompton & Lake 1991, p. 3). Crime prevention is too important an issue to be left to the police alone.

Throughout the world, governments and communities have learned that simply allocating money to a problem is not enough to solve it. Problems of law and order are no exception. Queensland's Government has increased the police budget by 60 per cent and put some 1500 extra police on the beat since 1989, but this commitment will not prevent crime if local communities are not asked or prepared to become involved in the process. Smart, modern, effective policing is all about community involvement. And that is where programs such as the "Police Beat" Shopfronts come in.

Back to the community

"Police Beat" is a reinvention of the role played by the beat cop. Now, there is a "... blending of the best of the past with today's reality" (Trojanowicz 1990, p. 2).

For Queensland Police, this reinvention resulted from the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry Recommendation No. 6 that "Community policing be adopted as the primary policing strategy, with policing again becoming a neighbourhood affair" (Fitzgerald 1989, p. 381). It is now enshrined in legislation. "Members of the Service are to act in partnership with the community at large" (Section 2.4(2), Police Service Administration Act 1990). Section 7.1 of the Police Service Code of Conduct provides the behavioural orientation of officers toward the community: "Officers should ensure that they effectively communicate with, and promote participation by all sectors of, their communities".

The obvious implication is that police must work more closely with the public, especially since their own morale and sense of worth may improve in the process. It is logical to attempt to find ways of deploying police that will more effectively enhance deterrence, solicit more active support for the police, and provide better intelligence about potential criminal problems.

Police Beat Shopfront Program

Following the Victims of Crime Survey (1991), the Queensland Government produced its Shopping Centre Security Policy. The policy recommended an official and more comprehensive policing presence in shopping centres, which lead to the Police Beat Shopfront Program.

Police Beat Shopfronts are of two kinds:

• a permanent fixed shop within a shopping centre; or
• a portable modular unit erected on a temporary basis during peak shopping periods.

The program began with a trial period of three sites over Christmas 1992. One of those sites was a portable police beat module which operated out of a fixed shop in the K-Mart Shopping Centre at Rockhampton. A second module was situated at the Garden City Shopping Centre, Mt Gravatt, whilst a third was conducted from the Chermside Police Station to service the Coles Myer Shopping Centre situated at Gympie Road, Chermside. However, as new permanent shopfronts have been established, the portable modules have been phased out.

The Police Beat Shopfront Program has as its Mission Statement:

To provide the people in Queensland with an effective policing presence at shopping centres.

Shopfronts objectives

The Police Beat Shopfront Program was subsequently developed with the following objectives:

• to satisfy the needs of people to communicate more easily with police;
• to improve the community feeling about personal safety;
• to reduce the community fear of crime;
• to raise the perception about the risk of detection for committing offences.

Critical elements

The success of the Police Beat Shopfront Program is also dependent upon these critical elements:

• the support of the client groups;
• the support of the Retailers Association of Queensland;
• recurrent funding;
• the concept of being professional. It must be fully coordinated as part of a total regional resource so that all elements complement each other;
• a quality presentation including the policing shopfront design and the construction and the creativity of visual displays complemented with internal and external marketing;
• the positive attitude of police;
• suitable staff performing duties in the shopping centres, having a good rapport with members of the community;
• the policing shopfront having the flexibility to meet the needs of the local community. Shopfront policing modules must be portable and be regarded as a regional resource rather than allocated to a particular shopping centre; and
• the beat patrols and processes operating from the policing shopfront being coordinated with formal police establishments.

Site Selection criteria

The criteria recognise that each shopping centre will "be different in relation to its location, the demographic make-up of the area, and its size and facilities" (Mahoney 1981). These criteria are:

• whether a policing problem exists;
• research and evaluation of reported crime;
• accessibility and exposure to the community;
• site availability;
• attractively negotiated leasing arrangements;
• impact of shopping centre policies;
• limitations concerning hours of operation;
• cooperation of shopping centre management (such as liaison and coordination with security services and use of non-public facilities).

The primary criterion is that a policing problem exists. If there is no policing problem to be solved, then the shopfront becomes a public relations exercise.

Evaluation procedure

'Police Beat' is continually evaluated to see if it achieves its aims by:

• measuring differences in community perceptions of personal safety while shopping;
• measuring whether 'Police Beat' improves the public's communication with the police;
• measuring whether 'Police Beat' reduces the fear of crime generally;
• measuring whether 'Police Beat' affects the crime rate in shopping centres and surrounds; and
• measuring the cost-effectiveness of the 'Police Beat' in terms of all the above.

Evaluations are conducted to obtain a correct picture of the factors associated with fear of crime, as this is important for policy makers, law enforcement and crime prevention. For example, it is important to know whether victimisation, vandalism or perceived high crime rates in shopping centres really do increase fear because this will have an impact on preventative strategies and the kinds of services required in shopping centres.

When the public periodically considers the crime problem to be escalating, they become alarmed and the belief emerges that the judicial system needs "toughening". This generalised anxiety has been described in terms of fear, frustration and aggression, moral indignation and a desire for control and reassurance.

Evaluation results

The independent evaluations found that shoppers interviewed strongly supported the 'Police Beat' concept. Shoppers interviewed felt that the police presence would enhance crime prevention and crime deterrence in the shopping centres. The findings indicated a high level of fear was associated with walking alone in car parks and out-of-the-way places in shopping centres during the evening. Women reported that the presence of police in shopping centres would help alleviate their fear of crime and a majority would prefer to go to shopping centres where police were present.

The program has been fully evaluated by an independent body (the former Queensland University of Technology). It was found that 90 per cent of respondents believed that a police presence in shopping centres would be either essential or positive. 62 per cent of people have a fear of crime in shopping centres, but 86 per cent of those said a police presence would alleviate that fear. 84 per cent of people prefer to talk to police in the relaxed, attractive atmosphere of the Police Beat Shopfront rather than go to a police station.

There are 25 permanent Police Beat Shopfronts located throughout the state to assist regions in ensuring a comprehensive policing presence in shopping centres.

The success of the program has been largely due to the fact that it was developed as an operational initiative rather than a public relations exercise.

Implementation plan 1995-97

The Queensland State Government Law and Order Initiative allocated two police officers and one administrative officer (AO2) for each permanent shopfront. This allocation of staff is in addition to staff appointed from regional resources.

Details and the locations of (25) permanent Police Beat Shopfronts situated throughout the State of Queensland are as listed below:

Shopping Centre	Region
Festival Faire	Far Northern
Cairns CBD	Far Northern
Mt Isa CBD	Northern
Stockland, Townsville	Northern
Flinders Mall, Townsville	Northern
Rockhampton K-Mart Plaza	Central
Kin Kora, Gladstone	Central Region
Sandcastles Complex, Mooloolaba	North Coast
Hastings Street, Noosa	North Coast
Sunshine Plaza, Maroochydore	North Coast
Burbond Street, Bundaberg	North Coast
Brookside Shopping Centre	Metropolitan North
Westfield Toombul Shoppingtown	Metropolitan North
Valley Centre Plaza, F/Valley	Metropolitan North
Carindale Shopping Centre,	Metropolitan South
Sunnybank., Plaza, Sunnybank	Metropolitan South
Ipswich CBD	Southern Region
Village Fair, Toowoomba	Southern Region
Redbank Plains Shopping Centre	Southern
Wilston Shopping Centre, Toowoomba	Southern
Australia Fair, Southport	South Eastern
Cavill Mall, Surfers Paradise	South Eastern
Logan Hyperdome, Logan	South Eastern
Pacific Fair, Broadbeach	South Eastern
Robina Shopping	South Eastern

Human resource considerations

Initially, there were some problems concerning staffing arrangements for the Shopfronts, and it is worth mentioning those here. Historically, staff once selected were appointed to the local station supporting the Shopfront (Aldrich 1994). Some police regions followed a process of rotating police officers through the shopfront, i.e., on an ad hoc basis with very little devolution of authority and within insufficient time frames to allow those officers to develop a rapport with local shopkeepers, shoppers and retailers.

Some of the other police regions were also of the opinion that the duties associated with the shopfront were repetitious and therefore did not expose officers to the wider varieties of situations normally experienced by other uniform staff during general duties (Assistant Commissioner, North Coast, August 1995).

In response to those regions, a lengthy submission was prepared to the Human Resource Director, Queensland Police Service, and which suggested that police officers needed to be appointed permanently at the shopfronts to ensure that the objectives of the program are met. There are numerous benefits in the appointment of permanent police officers at shopfronts.

Shopfronts place police in the community at all times, allowing them to interact and socialise with the public constantly. As a result of this socialisation, the community are more willing to proffer information and the level of communication between both parties is increased. This increased level of communication, interaction and socialisation has helped to reduce the fear of crime (Holland 1985). Moreover, it is easier for police officers to identify and analyse persistent problems when they are familiar with the community.

When officers are unfamiliar with an area they must invest the time to gather additional information about community specific problems (US Department of Justice 1993, p. 13).

Police officers in shopfronts are also able to readily identify problems and underlying crime trends that would otherwise go unnoticed. Staff have a sense of ownership and are involved in local beat initiatives and attend local community groups meetings with local retailers and businesses.

The community-orientated police officer needed decentralisation so he or she could get to know people in a neighbourhood and get to know local problems, which is a goal he or she shared with the problem-orientated officer (Toch & Grant 1991, p. 11).

Goldstein (1990) points out that:

while some problems can be viewed as citywide and relatively uniform wherever they occur, most have a local character to them or may even be unique to a specific beat. It requires officers close to a community to identify them and to deal with them (p. 160)

It has also been noted that problem-solving police officers often show very high morale and motivation (Toch & Grant 1991, p. 11) more so than staff that are continually changed. The process of continually changing shopfront staff allows for very little community interaction and subsequently provides little job satisfaction. This problem is magnified if members are required to perform duty in an environment which they did not choose nor are accustomed to.

Motivation and job satisfaction are emotional reactions, influenced by experiences at work and connected to certain attributes of job tasks. Research suggests that three key psychological conditions must be present to bring about this internal motivation and satisfaction (Hackman & Lawler 1971; Hackman & Oldham 1980):

• the work must be meaningful: it must be important or worthwhile, based upon some system of values which the worker accepts;
• the worker must feel personally responsible for the outcomes of his work;
• the worker needs feedback - he must know how well he is doing the job.

Incident-driven policing fails to motivate many line officers, because it presents limited opportunities for meaningful work, responsibility, and feedback.

There had been some concern expressed that Shopfront duty does not expose staff to a wider variety of duties and hence staff are disadvantaged by being locked into a normal tenure, but this has not proved to be the case and the Police Beat Shopfront program is now an integral part of policing in Queensland.

The final shopfront staffing policy adopted is that senior constables, although formally attached to the local station, have a specific Police Beat Shopfront job description, which is advertised in the Queensland Police Gazette as a specific Shopfront position. Tenure is to be a minimum of two years.

Constables, although formally attached to the local station may be rotated through Shopfronts; however, the period of time Constables spend assigned to the Shopfront is not to be less than six consecutive twenty-eight day rosters.

All Police Beat Shopfronts once constructed are gazetted as police establishments.

Staff within the shopfront program have a defined beat area and as such are responsible for that area in the same way that a general duty officer is. The shopfront police officer is required to attend any and all jobs tasked within their defined beat. The Police Beat Shopfront Program has devolved responsibility for budgets to police officers attached at the shopfronts. This process was facilitated to enable staff to better program their shifts, roster according to identified problems, and provide a better service delivery, based on local client needs. Staff work better as a team if the team is constant, collaboratively focused and not subject to continual change.

Shopfront police are required to attend traffic accidents, take criminal offence reports, make arrests, caution juveniles, attend fires, dead bodies, issue summons, etc. On top of these duties they are required to attend officer in charge conferences, debriefings, manage staff, fostering, budgeting. developing operational orders and procedures for the effective policing of their beat area.

Therefore it is quite possible that staff members attached to the Shopfront will be gaining more skills and management techniques than the average general duty officer who is providing only a reactive incident driven service to the community. Moreover, a committed Shopfront police officer with all these new developed skills stands a better chance of obtaining promotional opportunities to the next level.

Outcomes

Some of the early statistical data obtained from the Shopfronts are:

Mooloolaba/Maroochydore Police Beat Shopfront Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre

50 per cent of the divisional criminal offence reports for one month of May. Police have responded to 517 incidents between February - August 1995

Southport Police Beat Shopfront Australia Fair Shopping Centre, Southport

In a 12-month period (September 1994-1995) police officers arrested 223 offenders on 424 charges. 48 Crisp Reports for the month of November 1995.

Cavill Mall police beat shopfront Surfers Paradise, Queensland

50 Crisp Reports for the month of August 1995. 35 arrests.
82 Crisp Reports for the month of September 1995. 18 arrests.
99 Crisp Reports for the month of October 1995. 34 arrests.

Carindale police beat shopfront Carindale Shopping Centre, Brisbane

Since July 1995 the Carindale Police Beat Shopfront has attended to 260 incidents, 141 Crisp Reports and 63 arrests.

Cairns Esplanade, Cairns

Since the Esplanade Police Beat Shopfront was completed in October 1995, a total of 171 persons were arrested on 215 charges. Whilst this number is in excess of all the other Shopfronts, it should be noted that the Cairns Police Division are running all their beats out of the Shopfront and have increased the Shopfront strength to 14.

If the Police Service's success is determined purely on statistical data then the Police Beat Shopfront Program has been, and continues to be, a resounding success. When 2 police officers in the Maroochydore division are recording 50 per cent of the crime and responding to 100 incidences a month within their own work environment then they are obviously fulfilling a comprehensive and effective operational role within today's policing environment.

When three police officers attached to the shopfront at Southport can process offenders at the rate of nearly 20 per month on a variety of charges ranging from stealing to robbery with violence then they too are fulfilling their intended roles in a similar manner.

Earlier this year, the shopfront police attached to Cavill Mall, Surfers Paradise, recorded 90 per cent of the traffic offence notices for the division for a month earlier this year.

The evaluation of the Police Beat Shopfront Program has revealed that 91 per cent of shoppers felt that there had been a decrease in criminal behaviour since the introduction of the Police Beat Shopfront at Australia Fair.

The Maroochydore/Mooloolaba area has also recorded a 13.6 per cent decrease in the reporting of preventable crime.

Summary

Police officers attached to the shopfront are performing their duties efficiently, effectively and in line with their sworn oath of office. A strong visible presence gives police the opportunity to "intervene at earlier stages to prevent problems from arising, develop a heightened appreciation of community concerns, explain police services more accurately, and solicit information that leads to arrests and prosecution" (Skolnick & Bayley 1988, p. 11).

The success of this program has been due to the way it was developed as an operational exercise rather than a public relations exercise. It is getting police back on the street where most people are - in the shopping centres.

It has become apparent during the past 10 years that business operators throughout Australia are in the process of downsizing their operations. In effect, large corporate instrumentalities, i.e., Australia Post, banks, are moving into shopping centres in an attempt to gain market share in an ever competitive business environment. These companies have identified the need to be where the majority of people are (in shopping centres), and are relocating into the suburbs en masse.

The downsizing of these corporate entities has in effect made them more efficient, effective and attractive as a marketing commodity, better able to service the needs of their customer, the Australian community. In essence policing and specifically the Police Beat Shopfront Program has just followed this lead.

To conclude, fourteen million people, nearly the entire population of Australia will visit Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, Broadbeach, during the next 12 months. That figure alone justifies Government expenditure on this program.

Bibliography

• Booth L., Crompton, B. and Lake, T. 1991, Community Policing in Queensland. Queensland Police Service, Community Policing Support Branch.
• Braiden, C. 1985, Bank Robberies and Stolen bikes - Thoughts of a Street Cop. Edmonton Police Service, Canada.
• Cameron D., Nystrom, K. and Lake, T. 1993, Police Beat - An Operational Approach to Shopfront Policing. Queensland Police Service.
• Fitzgerald, G. (Chairman) 1989, Commission of Inquiry into Police Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct. Government Printer, Brisbane.
• Hans Toch and J Douglas Grant 1991, Police as Problem Solvers, Plenum Press.
• Herman Goldstein 1990, Problem-Oriented Policing. Temple University Press.
• John E Eck and William Spelman 1987, Problem Solving (Problem-Oriented Policing in Newport News), National Institute of Justice.
• Lake, T 1993, Beats and Shopfront Policing. The Queensland Police Beat Shopfront Program. Queensland Police Service.
• Mahoney, T. 1981, Shopping Malls - New problems for law enforcement, in FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Vol. 50 No. 3.
• Police Service Administration Act, 1990, Section 2.4(2).
• Potter, N. 1988, Law Enforcement's Role in Shopping Center Security, in Law and Order, Vol. 36 No. 4.
• Queensland Government Statisticians Office, 1991, Victims of Crime Survey. Government Printer, Brisbane.
• Research and Evaluation Branch, Queensland Police Service, and The Community Development and Crime Prevention Unit, Queensland University of Technology, 1993, Report and Evaluation of Police Beat (Christmas 1992).
• Skogan, W. and Wycoff, M. 1986, Storefront Police Offices. The Housten Field Test, in Community Crime Prevention - Does it Work? Sage Criminal Justice System Annuals, Sage Publications, Beverley Hills, Vol. 22.
• Skolnick, J. and Bayley, D. 1989, Community Policing - Issues and Practices around the World. U.S., Department of Justice.
• The Police Service Code of Conduct, 1991. Section 7. 1.
• Trojanowicz, R. 1990, Neighbourhood Network Centers: Expanding the Community Policing Model. Footprints, The Community Policing Newsletter, Vol. 3 No. 3.
• Webber, A. 1991, Crime and Management: An Interview with New York City Police Commissioner Lee P Brown, in Harvard Business Review, May-June 1991.
• Monograph. 1993, US Department of Justice.
• Problem-Oriented Drug Enforcement (A Community Based Approach for Effective Policing).
• Woolley, C. 1985, The Cop Shop with a Difference, in Australian Police Journal Jul-Sept. 1985.

For further information contact:

State Co-ordinator
Police Beat Shopfront Program
Crime Prevention
Queensland Police Service
GPO Box 1440
BRISBANE QLD 4001.

Tel: (07) 3364 6586
Fax: (07) 3364 4695