Effects of Foot Patrol Policing in Boston, 1977-1985

This collection evaluates the impact of a new foot patrol plan, implemented by the Boston Police Department, on incidents of crime and neighborhood disturbances. Part 1 contains information on service calls by types of criminal offenses such as murder, rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, robbery, larceny, burglary, and auto theft. It also contains data on types of community disturbances such as noisy party, gang, or minor disturbance and response priority of the incidents. Response priorities are classified according to a four-level scale: Priority 1: emergency calls including crimes in progress, high risk or personal injury, and medical emergencies, Priority 2: calls of intermediate urgency, Priority 3: calls not requiring immediate response, Priority 4: calls of undetermined priority. Parts 2 and 3 include information about patrol time used in each of the three daily shifts during the pre- and post-intervention periods. Part 4 presents information similar to Parts 2 and 3 but the data span a longer period of time--approximately seven years.