Motor Vehicle Theft

This program involved the use of a crime forecasting model to direct police patrol to dynamic hot spots to reduce crime. The program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant reductions in daily crime volume (specifically burglary, car theft, and burglary-theft from vehicle) for police patrols in the treatment condition, compared with patrols in the control condition.

This is a police substation operating within a business improvement district in Newark (N.J.) with the goal of reducing crime in the target area. The program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant reductions in burglary and motor vehicle theft in the treated area compared with a control area over the entire 6-year postintervention period. There were no statistically significant differences in robbery, aggravated assault, or theft from auto.

This strategy sought to reduce crime in Philadelphia by testing three different patrol strategies. The program is rated No Effects. Relative to control areas, there was no statistically significant difference in violent or property crimes in areas using one of two of the patrol strategies. Property crimes in an area using one of the strategies saw a statistically significant decrease, while there was a statistically significant increase in violent crime in areas using two of the strategies.

This is a police-operated public surveillance program that seeks to reduce crime and increase crime clearances (i.e., arrests) by installing new closed-circuit television cameras at high-crime, high-traffic intersections in Milwaukee (Wis.). The program is rated Promising. Intersections in intervention areas where new cameras were installed had a statistically significant higher rate of crime clearances for all crime types, compared with intersections in comparison areas.

This is a temporary outdoor street-lighting program designed to reduce nighttime crime in public housing developments experiencing elevated crime rates. The program is rated Promising. Installing additional light towers in treated developments resulted in statistically significant reductions in complaints of index crimes, felony crimes, assaults, homicides, and weapons crimes at night, compared with control developments. There were no statistically significant differences in misdemeanor crimes.

This program is designed to deter street-level crime in Newark using closed-circuit cameras, hard-wired to physical structures, which are monitored in real time by CCTV operators. The program is rated No Effects. Results from one study showed no statistically significant differences in shootings, auto thefts, or thefts from autos. Results from a second study showed a statistically significant decrease in auto thefts but no statically significant difference in shootings or thefts from auto.

This program involved officers patrolling crime hot spots in roughly 15-minute intervals to reduce crime. The program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant reductions in aggregated Part 1 crimes and Part 1 property crimes in the treatment hot spots, compared with control areas, during the 90-day intervention period, when compared with the same period 1 year prior. However, there was no statistically significant effect on calls for service, soft crime, and Part 1 violent crimes

This program examined whether access to deployment data collected through technology impacted police commanders’ management of resources and led to reductions in crime. The program is rated No Effects. There was a statistically significant decrease in crime at the hot spot level. However, there were no significant differences in crime at the beat level, in consistency between patrols assigned and delivered per beat and per hot spot, or in number of hours of patrol on beats or in hot spots.

A crime prevention strategy designed to reduce crime in Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority parking facilities through the introduction of digital cameras at the exits of the parking facilities to capture images of patrons’ license plates as they exited the facility. The program is rated as No Effects. Crime rates (including car-related, property, and violent crimes) remained at pre-camera levels in parking facilities.

In the Netherlands, a large-scale government intervention led to a regulation requiring built-in home security in all newly constructed homes. The program is rated Promising. The regulatory change statistically significantly reduced the risk of burglary by 26 percent compared with homes built in the years prior to the passage of the regulation. There were no statistically significant effects on measures of attempted burglary.

This is a public surveillance system that includes a network of cameras and components for monitoring, recording, and transmitting video images to monitor crime in different areas of Baltimore, Md. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant decrease in total monthly crime in the downtown, Greenmount, and tri-district areas of Baltimore between pretest and posttest. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the North Avenue area.

This is a strengths-based, university-led program that diverts arrested youth from formal processing in the juvenile justice system and provides them with community-based services. The program is rated Effective. Participants in the program had statistically significant lower rates of official delinquency, compared with control group youth. However, there was no statistically significant difference between groups in self-reported delinquency.

This program consists of the use of a vehicle-scanning device deployed by law enforcement to detect vehicles that have been reported stolen or missing. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant program effects on general crime, auto-related crime, vehicle-theft calls for service, or auto-theft.

This is a geographically focused policing strategy to reduce violent crime in high-crime areas using problem-oriented policing (POP) and saturation/directed patrols. The program is rated No Effects. While there were no statistically significant reductions in any violent or property crime in POP hot spots, or in any violence or property crime in directed patrol hot spots, there were statistically significant reductions in nondomestic violent crime in POP hot spots compared with control hot spots.

This was an experiment to evaluate the impact of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence collection and testing on the investigation of high-volume property crimes. The program is rated Effective. Across five sites, more suspects were identified, arrested, and prosecuted in the treatment group cases, compared with suspects in the control group cases. These differences were statistically significant.

This is a program designed to reduce crime by improving street lighting in residential areas. This program is rated Effective. There were statistically significant reductions in prevalence, incidence, and fear of crime in the experimental area compared with the control area. In addition, a statistically significant higher percentage of residents in the control area reported knowing someone who had been the victim of a crime compared with residents in the experimental area.

The town of Redton, England, installed closed-circuit television cameras in the central commercial district to reduce crime. The program is rated Promising. Using a trend analysis, there was no significant overall crime decrease. However, in analyses of separate types of crime, controlling for trends, the reduction was significant for some types of crime (theft of and from vehicles), but not from others (other theft, shoplifting).

This program uses devices that prevent a vehicle from starting without receiving the correct signal from the driver, with the goal of reducing car theft. This signal may be communicated through a transponder, electronic key, or other mechanism. The program is rated Effective. The program demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in theft of cars with engine immobilizers, compared with theft of cars without engine immobilizers.