Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment

The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment, conducted in the 1970s, sought to evaluate how police patrol methods impact crime rates and public safety. Researchers divided Kansas City into areas with different levels of police presence: some had regular patrols, some had increased patrols, and others had no patrols at all. Surprisingly, the study found that crime rates and residents' feelings of safety remained largely unchanged, regardless of police visibility. This challenged the belief that more patrols directly lead to reduced crime, prompting a reevaluation of traditional policing strategies and their effectiveness in preventing crime.