Crime Prevention
The anticipation, recognition, and appraisal of a crime risk and the initiation of action to eliminate or reduce it.
CompStat
A crime-analysis and police-management process, built on crime mapping that was developed by the NYPD in the mid-1990's.
Quality-of-Life Offense
A minor violation of the law that demoralizes community residents and businesspeople.
Response Time
A measure of the time that it takes for police officers to respond to calls for service.
Criminal Investigation
The process of discovering, collecting, preparing, identifying, and presenting evidence to determine what happened and who is responsible" when a crime has occured.
Crime Scene
The physical area in which a crime is thought to have occurred and in which evidence of the crime is thought to reside.
Preliminary Investigation
All of the activities undertaken by a police officer who responds to the scene of a crime, including determining whether a crime has occurred, securing the crime scene, and preserving evidence.
Crime-Scene Investigator
An expert trained in the use of forensics techniques, such as gathering DNA evidence, collecting fingerprints, photographing the scene, sketching, and interviewing witnesses.
Solvability Factor
Information about a crime that forms the basis for determining the perpetrator's identity.
Police Management
The administrative activities of controlling, directing, and coordinating police personnel, resources, and activities in the service of preventing crime, apprehending criminals, recovering stolen property, and performing regulatory and helping services.
Line Operations
In police organizations, the field activities or supervisory activities directly related to day-to-day police work.
Staff Operations
In police organizations, activities (such as administration and training) that provide support for line operations.
Chain of Command
The unbroken line of authority that extends through all levels of an organization, from the highest to the lowest.
Span of Control
The number of police personnel or the number of units supervised by a particular commander.
Watchman Style
A style of policing marked by a concern for order maintenance. It is a characteristic of lower-class communities where police intervene informally into the lives of residents to keep the peace.
Legalistic Style
A style of policing marked by a strict concern with enforcing the precise letter of the law. They may take a hands-off approach to disruptive or problematic behavior that does not violate the criminal law.
Service Style
A style of policing marked by a concern with helping rather than strict enforcement. Service-oriented police agencies are more likely to use community resources to supplement traditional law enforcement activities than are other types of agencies.
Police-Community Relations
An area of police activity that recognizes the need for the community and the police to work together effectively.
Team Policing
The reorganization of conventional patrol strategies into "an integrated and versatile police team assigned to a fixed district.
Strategic Policing
A type of policing that retains the traditional police goal of professional crime fighting but enlarges the enforcement target to include nontraditional kinds of criminals. Generally makes use of innovative enforcement techniques, including intelligence o
Problem-Solving Policing
A type of policing that assumes that crimes can be controlled by uncovering and effectively addressing the underlying social problems that cause crime. Makes use of community resources.
Community Policing
A collabortive effort between the police and the community that identifies problems of crime and disorder and involves all elements of the community in the search for solutions to these problems.
Police Subculture
A particular set of values, beliefs, and acceptable forms of behavior characteristic of American police.
Intelligence-Led Policing
The collection and analysis of information to produce an intelligence end product designed to inform police decision making at both the tactical and strategic levels.
Criminal Intelligence
Information compiled, analyzed, or disseminated in an effort to anticipate, prevent, or monitor criminal activity.
Police Discretion
The opportunity for police officers to exercise choice in their enforcement activities.
Police Professionalism
The increasing formalization of police work and the accompanying rise in public acceptance of the police.
Police Ethics
The special responsiblity to adhere to moral duty and obligation that is inherent in police work.
Peace Officer Standards and Training Program
The official program of a state or legislative jurisdiction that sets standards for the training of law enforcement officers.