Hot Spots Policing: What We Know and What We Need to Know

In this concluding chapter, we focus specifically on what we know about hot spots policing and what we still need to know to continue advancing science and policy in this area of study. We begin by giving a short definition of hot spots policing and briefly reviewing the evidence regarding the general effectiveness of hot spots policing. We then turn in more detail to areas where new knowledge must be developed to advance hot spots policing in the 21st century. We argue that: We know that hot spots policing does not lead inevitably to immediate spatial displacement, though there is little evidence regarding displacement to areas farther away or other types of displacement; We have emerging evidence on which hot spots policing strategies work best, but there is still much to learn before police can rely on research for which specific strategies they should be using; We do not know enough about the impacts of hot spots policing on police legitimacy, though our knowledge has grown substantially in recent years; There are emerging efforts for police to capitalize on informal social controls of citizens, but these efforts are only just developing; We know a good deal about the effectiveness of hot spots policing in larger cities but little about its effectiveness in smaller cities and rural areas; We know that hots spots policing produces meaningful short-term crime prevention benefits. We need to know more about the long-term impacts of hot spots policing; We know that hot spots policing reduces crime at hot spots, but we need better evidence on whether the adoption of hot spots policing will reduce crime in a jurisdiction.