The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment
A major research collaboration between the Philadelphia Police Department and researchers in the Department of Criminal Justice involving over 200 police officers on foot beats around some of the city’s most violent corners may spark a revision of a long-held view of police patrol.
On the invitation of the Philadelphia Police Department, police and academic researchers worked together to plan the Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment as a randomized control trial. With the resources to patrol 60 locations, researchers identified the highest violent crime corners in the city, using data from 2006 to 2008. Police commanders designed 120 foot patrol areas around these corners, and stratified randomization was used to assign pairs of foot patrols with similar crime rates as either a comparison or a target area.
Officers generally patrolled in pairs with two pairs assigned to each foot patrol. They worked from Tuesday morning to Saturday night in two shifts (10am to 6pm, 6pm to 2am). After three months, relative to the comparison areas, violent crime decreased 23%.
Official records of police activities during the intervention period reveal the following in the target areas:
- Drug‐related incident detections increased 15%
- Pedestrian stops increased 64%
- Vehicle stops increased 7%
- Arrests increased 13%
The reduction in violence indicates the foot patrols prevented 53 violent crimes during the summer.
This project won the 2010 IACP Excellence in Law Enforcement Research Award [details].
Look for future findings on our mixed-method study of foot patrol dosage, policing style, and management approach.
Click on the 'Research brief (pdf)' link on the right for a 3-page research summary.
Click on the 'Draft of full academic paper (pdf)' link on the right for the article forthcoming in Criminology.
Related faculty
Jerry Ratcliffe