This volume presents a summary of a comprehensive survey, conducted in 1975, of the state-of-the-art of crime analysis in support of traditional preventive patrol, team policing, and specialized patrol. This volume is the result of a national evaluation program effort on crime analysis. Methods utilized during the study included an extensive review of the literature on crime analysis, site visits to 23 police departments, and an investigation of evaluation strategies for crime analysis. An overview of the procedures and results of the literature review and on-site visits is first presented. In general, the authors found that both these approaches provided little insight into the actual value of crime analysis, although police intuitively believe in its value. The report then turns to an analysis of the relation between program goals and objectives and crime analysis. Objectives and assumptions relating to patrol and crime analysis are listed, and for each a suggested measurement for the impact of crime analysis is given. Most of the measures suggested are of a qualitative nature. The findings of the study indicate that crime analysis has no value in and of itself. The authors conclude that because crime analysis programs are so inseparable from the patrol programs they support and have such a variety of potential forms, evaluation of crime analysis, apart from the patrol programs, would seem to have little value. It is suggested that the evaluation frameworks developed in this project be incorporated into larger evaluation efforts targeted toward selected patrol programs.

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred. Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing. Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.