Was A Needs Assessment In Richmond, Virginia

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Was a needs assessment conducted?

A needs assessment was conducted to see where improvement was needed in Richmond, Virginia. The problem in Richmond was, there were areas in neighborhoods with high crime rates. It was thought that police would enforce crackdowns on those cities, and crime would reduce and calls for service would reduce.

“The City of Richmond targeted seven high crime areas to receive a massive, 30-day police intervention to be carried out one area at a time beginning in April 1999 (Smith, 2001)”. The goal was to hopefully reduce crime citywide by thirty percent by 2000. Highland Park was the first neighborhood to receive the implementation of this program. The police officers provided uniformed patrol, and were proactive …show more content…

There is a common goal with stakeholders and program goals to reduce drugs and crimes by police efforts. The goals of this program are to reduce crime in neighborhoods that are experiencing higher crime rates, and cleanup disadvantaged neighborhoods (Smith, 2001). The overall purpose of the study is to see what effects happen when implementing “Blitz and Bloom” (Smith, 2001). Police officers were to provide maximum impact and have the capability to interchange to different locations around the city. This program was implemented to measure the crime and calls for service in the targeted neighborhoods (Smith, 2001). The evaluation of this program was done to understand the impact of police visibility (Smith, 2001). The theory was that police presence in neighborhoods with crime rates would experience a reduction in crime. The program had a potential to be implemented to other cities if a positive result was seen with the reduction of crime when officers were …show more content…

The neighborhoods that were apart of the crack down zone experienced a reduction in crime (Smith, 2001). After the thirty-day crackdown, crime stayed curbed for approximately six months after the program was done (Smith, 2001). The proactive policing in these areas had a positive impact on the neighborhoods that were in need. However, the crackdown did not reduce the demands for police services. Calls for service before and after the program continued to be consistent. Calls for service in Highland Park actually increased after the crackdown. The calls for service could be explained by the relationships the officers and community develop over time with the program.

Impact evaluations: What methods are used? Sampling? What analysis techniques were used?

Crime appeared to go down during the implementation of the program. To show the differences in reported crime and during the program of the target and comparison zones were done. A T test was done as the primary analytical device for the evaluation (Smith, 2001). This was used to analyze the reported crime from before and after the Blitz to Bloom program (Smith, 2001). Additionally, a Mann-Whitney U test was conducted as an additional check of significance (Smith, 2001). For individual offense a means test was conducted. The results showed that burglaries and larcenies from vehicle were