Most people agree that local police should continue to place a high priority on responding to violent and other felony crime. At the same time, departments are increasingly asked to assume more service-related responsibilities within the community, creating a situation of thinly spread resources. Some nonemergency problems might be handled in an alternate way to increase efficiency in the delivery of police services. To measure community perceptions of alternate reporting methods, we mailed a survey to 6,000 urban residents in Kansas City. Most citizens embraced phone reporting, but were less willing to use mail-in reporting and the Internet. Policy implications are discussed.
Anderson, E. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. New York: W. W. Norton.
2.
Baumer, E.P. (2002). Neighborhood disadvantage and police notification by victims of violence. Criminology, 40, 579-617.
3.
Bennett, R.R., & Wiegand, R.B. (1994). Observations on crime reporting in a developing nation. Criminology, 32, 135-148.
4.
Cahn, M.F., & Tien, J.M. (1981). An alternative approach in police response: Wilmington management of demand program. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
5.
Farnworth, M., Thornberry, T.P., Krohn, M.D., & Lizotte, A.J. (1994). Measurement in the study of class and delinquency: Integrating theory and research. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 31, 32-61.
6.
Frank, J., Smith, B.W., & Novak, K.J. (2005). Exploring the basis of citizens' attitudes toward the police. Police Quarterly, 8(2), 206-228.
7.
Gilbertson, T.A. (2005). Reducing false security alarm calls for police service: A policy research note. Criminal Justice Policy Review , 16(4), 499-506.
8.
Goldstein, H. (1990). Problem-oriented policing. New York: McGraw-Hill.
9.
Goudriaan, H., Wittebrood, K., & Nieuwbeerta, P. (2006). Neighbourhood characteristics and reporting crime. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 719-742.
10.
Hawkins, C.W. (1996). Ready, fire aim: A look at community policing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In Police Executive Research Forum (Ed.), Themes and variations in community policing: Case studies in community policing (pp. 13-23). Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum.
11.
Iriberri, A., Leroy, G., & Garrett, N. (2006, January). Reporting on-campus crime on-line: User intention to use. Paper presented at the proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Kauai.
12.
Kennedy, L. (2002). Reaction essay: Issues in managing citizens' calls to the police. Criminology and Public Policy, 2(1), 125-128.
13.
Mazerolle, L., Rogan, D., Frank, J., Famega, C., & Eck, J. (2002). Managing citizen calls to the police: The impact of Baltimore's 3-1-1 call system. Criminology and Public Policy , 2(1), 97-124.
14.
McEwen, T., Connors, E.F., & Cohen, M.I. (1986). Evaluation of the differential police response field test. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
15.
McEwen, T., Spence, D., Wolff, R., Wartell, J., & Webster, B. (2003). Call management and community policing: A guidebook for law enforcement. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services . Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www.ilj.org/publications/3cfsguidebook.pdf
16.
Percy, S.L. (1980). Response time and citizen evaluation of police . Journal of Police Science and Administration, 8, 75-86
17.
Rountree, P.W. (1998). A re-examination of the crime-fear linkage. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 35(3), 341-372.
18.
Sherman, L., Gottfredson, D., MacKenzie, D.L., Eck, J., Reuter, P., & Bushway, S. (1996). Preventing crime: What works, what doesn't, what's promising. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.
19.
Solomon, S.E., & Uchida, C.D. (2003). Building a 3-1-1 system for police non-emergency calls: A process and impact evaluation. Austin, TX: Greater Austin Crime Commission. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?item=1275
20.
Tien, J.M., Simon, J.W., & Larson, R.C. (1977). An evaluation report of an alternative approach to police patrol: The Wilmington split force experiment. Cambridge, MA: Public Systems Evaluation, Inc.
21.
Tyler, T.R. (2005). Policing in black and white: Ethnic group differences in trust and confidence in the police. Police Quarterly, 8(3), 322-342.
22.
Williams, B.N. (1998). Citizen perspectives on community policing. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
23.
Worden, R.E. (1993). Toward equity and efficiency in law enforcement: Differential police response. American Journal of Police, 12(1), 1-32.
