Time Spent on Law Enforcement Activities
Although there is no doubt law enforcement is an important reason why we have the police, it must be understood that the police spend relatively little time on law enforcement activities. Several studies, although dated, have examined the workload of officers. Some have analyzed how officers spend their time (Exhibit 4.1); others looked at the types of calls that the police handle. All of the studies come to the same conclusion: Law enforcement makes up a relatively small portion of what the police do. This conclusion is so well established that it may explain why so little recent research has been conducted on the topic.
Similar to the Cincinnati and Wilmington studies (Exhibit 4.1), other studies that analyzed calls for service (not necessarily how time was spent) have concluded that approximately 25% of calls relate to crime; the remaining 75% involve noncrime matters.6 A recent analysis of calls to the Portland, Oregon, Police Department also showed that more than 75% of calls were from citizens asking for the police to intervene in situations where a crime was not committed.7 Indeed, according to criminologist James Fyfe, “Most of the people with whom the police interact need help with problems not related to crime.”8 Other studies call attention to the substantial amount of time that patrol officers spend on patrol, which ranges from 25%9 to approximately 40%10.
The bottom line is that although law enforcement is an important responsibility of the police, it constitutes a relatively small portion of what they do. As such, the reality of police activities is much different than what is portrayed in the news headlines or on television (Exhibit 4.2). Nevertheless, one could expect to find variation in the amount of time (or proportion of calls) devoted to law enforcement across cities, patrol beats, shifts, and officers’ job assignments.
Exhibit 4.1 How Do Police Patrol Officers Spend Their Time?
Although these studies were conducted in different places at different times, the findings do not vary dramatically: In Cincinnati, Ohio, 18% of officers’ time was spent on crime-related matters as compared to 26% of officers’ time in Wilmington, Delaware. In both cities, most officer time was spent patrolling.
Figure 4.1 How Police Spend Their Time: Cincinnati, Ohio, Police Department
Source: Cincinnati, Ohio, Police Department.11
Figure 4.2 How Police Spend Their Time: Wilmington, Delaware, Police Department
Source: Wilmington, Delaware, Police Department.12
The Police Control Crime
Crime control is closely related to law enforcement as a reason why we have the police. We have the police so that they can control crime; law enforcement is a means by which crime may be controlled. It could be argued that the police enforce the law in order to control crime.
The Controversy of Crime Control
Similar to law enforcement, crime control can also be controversial. Everyone is in favor of crime control, but crime control really means that the police are seeking to control people’s behavior. Unfortunately, people who engage in criminal behavior are not necessarily easy to identify. As a result, the police seek to control everyone’s behavior. For instance, a commonly used crime control strategy in many police departments today are SQFs, which involve stopping, questioning, and frisking citizens on streets and sidewalks. For example, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2018, the police conducted approximately 7,000 subject stops (SQFs). (In 2017, more than 13,000 stops were made.) This is in a city with a population of about 600,000 people, which equates to one out of every 86 residents being stopped on the streets or sidewalks over the course of the year.13
Exhibit 4.2 “Reality” Television
The television show COPS is one of the longest-running shows on television, now in its thirty-first season on Spike TV. The first episode aired in 1989 and the show ran on the Fox network for twenty-five years before moving to Spike. Each episode consists of twenty-two minutes of unwritten script from police officers on the job and the citizens with whom they interact. Reportedly, to create those twenty-two minutes of program content, it takes weeks or months of filming. The show focuses on street crime and the moments of excitement and intrigue during officers’ work days. The show has been criticized for not accurately portraying police work even though it is a “reality-based” program and for focusing exclusively on the crimes of the lower class and thus distorting the reality of criminal offending.
Photo 4.2 Live PD is presented as a “reality-based” police television show but it still provides a distorted view of policing.
PD Live Archive/Bill Tompkins/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
A&E’s Live PD television show is a more recent entry into the reality-based police action genre. This show features select encounters between police and citizens in various police departments across the country shown in real-time (with a broadcast delay). As with COPS, Live PD has been criticized as focusing only on the most exciting or unusual dimensions of police work.
A Research Question
Are Pedestrian Stops by the Police Effective?
Research shows that the use of street stops has increased dramatically in major cities across the United States in the past decade.14 The popularity of the strategy has raised questions about their effectiveness as a crime control strategy and whether these stops are made in a fair manner. Studies have shown that pedestrian stops have had some success at preventing crime,15 but their success at discovering or interrupting crime has been limited: From 2004 to 2010 in the New York City Police Department, 9.4% of stops resulted in an arrest, 2.9% resulted in the confiscation of drugs, and .25% of stops resulted in the discovery of an illegal gun.16
As for fairness of pedestrian stops, research has shown that stops have been disproportionately directed toward citizens of color.17 A recent study also showed that black and Hispanic citizens who were stopped were also more likely than white citizens to have force used upon them by the police.18 These research findings have been used to support civil lawsuits against the police to stop the widespread use of the strategy. Indeed, largely as a result of such lawsuits, the use of the strategy has declined in the last few years.
Yet other research has shown that stops may lead to a deterioration in positive views of the police and make residents less likely to report crime and cooperate with the police. The outcome is a long-term negative impact on public safety.19 As a result, there are good reasons to believe that the widespread use of pedestrian stops may cause more harm than good. The use of pedestrian and traffic stops as a police strategy is discussed in more detail in