Technical and background paper series

No. 14: Evaluation of a suburban crime prevention team

Marie Segrave and Lisa Collins
ISBN 0 642 53871 9 ; ISSN 1445-7261
Australian Institute of Criminology, 2005

• Download full report (PDF 1.06MB)

Abstract

The Crime Prevention Portfolio of ACT Policing introduced the Suburban crime prevention team (SCPT), a community policing initiative, into the Canberra suburb of Narrabundah in late August 2002. This team of two uniformed officers was deployed to Narrabundah for a six-month period and given the task of operating as community policing officers exclusively within the suburb boundary. This report is the final evaluation of that initiative. The evaluation was based on multiple methodologies, involving qualitative and quantitative data and both process- and outcome-based measures, and each of the eight objectives of the initiative is individually addressed. The report finds, overall, that while the development of the SCPT was limited in many ways, it was still a project that had a positive impact on the Narrabundah community and thus demonstrates both the potential and the need for community policing in the ACT. The report concludes by making a number of key recommendations and identifying issues for the development of future SCPTs.

Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Background
• 2. The suburban crime prevention team
• 3. Evaluating the objectives
  • Objective 1 : reduce crime
  • Objective 2 : reduce fear of crime
  • Objective 3 : gather intelligence
  • Objective 4 : increase community satisfaction with the police
  • Objective 5 : improve police-stakeholder relations
  • Objective 6 : improve residents' perception of the suburb
  • Objective 7 : identify and address community problems
  • Objective 8 : educate the community about crime prevention
• 4. Conclusion
• References
• Appendix 1 : methodology outline
• Appendix 2: control suburb
• Appendix 3: census data
• Appendix 4: representativeness of the panel sample
• Appendix 5: the SCPT in Narrabundah

List of figures

• Figure 1 : SCPT evaluation target and control suburbs
• Figure 2 : Upper and lower Narrabundah
• Figure 3 : Recorded crime data collection suburbs
• Figure 4 : Violent crime offences (weekly frequency), Narrabundah and Ainslie
• Figure 5 : Violent crime offences (weekly frequency), Red Hill, Griffith and Kingston
• Figure 6 : Property crime offences (frequency), Narrabundah and Ainslie
• Figure 7 : Property crime offences (frequency), Red Hill, Griffith and Kingston
• Figure 8 : Disorder-related offences (frequency), Narrabundah and Ainslie
• Figure 9 : Disorder-related offences (frequency), Red Hill, Griffith and Kingston
• Figure 10 : Victimisation prevalence by suburb, per cent who experienced victimisation one or more times in past six months
• Figure 11 : Victimisation prevalence by crime type for each suburb (per cent who experienced any crime once or more in the past six months)
• Figure 12 : SCPT activities by crime type (per cent conducted each month)
• Figure 13 : Perceptions of safety scaled scores by suburb (first community safety survey)
• Figure 14 : Perceptions of safety scaled scores by suburb (second community safety survey)
• Figure 15 : General linear model, estimated marginal measure of means for perceived levels of safety within Narrabundah
• Figure 16 : Perceptions of safety during the day and after dark
• Figure 17 : Perceptions of safety by location
• Figure 18 : Fear of crime activities (per cent by month) compared to all activities by month
• Figure 19 : SCPT intelligence-gathering activities
• Figure 20 : Overall perception of police, first community safety survey (scaled scores)
• Figure 21 : Overall perception of police, second community safety survey (scaled scores)
• Figure 22 : Activities aimed at addressing perceptions of police by month (%)
• Figure 23 : Activities aimed at improving police relationships with stakeholders by month
• Figure 24 : Activities aimed at addressing perceptions of the local environment
• Figure 25 : Percentage of respondents identifying each item as problematic in Narrabundah (first and second community safety surveys)
• Figure 26 : Percentage of respondents identifying each item as problematic in Ainslie (first and second community safety surveys)
• Figure 27 : Percentage of respondents satisfied with how the police are dealing with crime problems in Narrabundah (first and second community safety surveys)
• Figure 28 : Percentage of respondents satisfied with how the police are dealing with crime problems in Ainslie (first and second community safety surveys)
• Figure 29 : Activities to address and identify community problems by month
• Figure 30 : Crime prevention education activities by month (compared to all activities)
• Figure 31 : Time of day that respondent noted SCPT's presence
• Figure 32 : Time of day that respondents would like SCPT's presence

List of tables

• Table 1 : The Suburban Crime Prevention Team
• Table 2 : Methodology outline
• Table 3 : Recorded crime statistics offence categories
• Table 4 : Pre- and post-SCPT ANOVA test of weekly mean of reported violent offences
• Table 5 : Pre- and post-SCPT ANOVA test of weekly mean of reported property offences
• Table 6 : Pre- and post-SCPT ANOVA test of weekly mean of reported disorder-related offences
• Table 7 : General linear model exploring the interaction of time and suburb on victimisation prevalence
• Table 8 : Victimisation risks, prevalence by sex and age (per cent victimised once or more)
• Table 9 : Levels of reported crime victimisation by suburb and survey (per cent who have experienced any crime)
• Table 10 : Breakdown of SCPT activities according to crime type
• Table 11 : Narrabundah, perceptions of safety scale
• Table 12 : Ainslie, perceptions of safety scale
• Table 13 : Overall perceptions of safety in suburb-scale statistics
• Table 14 : General linear model exploring the interaction of time and suburb on overall perception of safety levels
• Table 15 : General linear model exploring the interaction of time and area on overall perception of safety levels within Narrabundah
• Table 16 : Perception of safety scales paired sample t-test comparing the first and second community safety surveys
• Table 17 : Perception of safety by victimisation, sex and age, from the first community safety survey
• Table 18 : Perception of safety by victimisation, sex and age, from the second community safety survey
• Table 19 : Likelihood of victimisation scales, Narrabundah
• Table 20 : Likelihood of victimisation scale, Ainslie
• Table 21 : Likelihood of victimisation scales between suburbs
• Table 22 : General linear model exploring the interaction of time and suburb on perceived likelihood of victimisation levels
• Table 23 : Likelihood of victimisation paired sample t-test comparing the first and second community safety surveys
• Table 24 : 'Is there a particular location in Narrabundah that makes you feel unsafe?'
• Table 25 : Paired-samples t-test for location-specific fear
• Table 26 : Locations where residents feel unsafe (ranked) by suburb (per cent who identified that a particular location in the suburb made them feel unsafe)
• Table 27 : Details of fear of crime-related activities
• Table 28 : Proportion of respondents who contacted police in the past six months to provide information (%)
• Table 29 : Comparing those who did/did not contact police to report information (%)
• Table 30 : Number of respondents who experienced crime in the past six months (per cent who reported the incident to police by suburb and survey)
• Table 31 : Intelligence-gathering activity details
• Table 32 : Satisfaction with police scale, item-total correlations, Narrabundah
• Table 33 : Satisfaction with police scale, item-total correlations, Ainslie
• Table 34 : Satisfaction with police scales by suburb
• Table 35 : General linear model exploring the interaction of time and suburb on overall satisfaction with police levels
• Table 36 : Overall satisfaction with police paired sample t-tests
• Table 37 : Percentage of respondents satisfied with police contact (following contact in past six months)
• Table 38 : Satisfaction with police scales by contact status
• Table 39 : Detail of activities aimed at addressing perceptions of police
• Table 40 : Details of activities that focused on improving and maintaining police relations with key stakeholders
• Table 41 : Measures to assess perceptions of the suburb, results
• Table 42 : Overall satisfaction with suburb paired-sample t-tests
• Table 43 : Perceived overall safety in suburb paired-sample t-tests
• Table 44 : Details of activities addressing perceptions of the local environment
• Table 45 : Details of activities related to identifying and addressing community problems
• Table 46 : Crime prevention education activity details
• Table 47 : Overview of key outcomes for SCPT objectives
• Table 48 : Key recommendations
• Table 49 : Recorded crime statistics, ASOC codes and offence definitions
• Table 50 : Comparing demographics of control and target suburb for sample for both surveys (panel only) (% unless otherwise indicated)
• Table 51 : 2001 census data (selected) for target, control and suburbs surrounding target suburbs and Canberra as a whole (% unless otherwise indicated)
• Table 52 : Narrabundah, first community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 53 : Narrabundah, second community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 54 : Ainslie, first community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 55 : Ainslie, second community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 56 : Upper Narrabundah, first community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 57 : Upper Narrabundah, second community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 58 : Lower Narrabundah, first community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 59 : Lower Narrabundah, second community safety survey, comparing the whole sample to the panel sample
• Table 60 : How often the SCPT was seen (%)
• Table 61 : Where the SCPT was seen (%)
• Table 62 : Location of contact with SCPT
• Table 63 : Assessment of SCPT's efforts in Narrabundah
• Table 64 : Future SCPT activities

Related links

• Project information: ACT police suburban crime prevention team