Running Head: CASE STUDY I 1

Case Study I

Full Name

Name of University

November 10, 2017

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In examining and evaluating the Hotspot Communities Initiative project

implemented in Baltimore, MD, it appears to have been a resounding success in relation to

lowering crime in one of Baltimore’s most violent neighborhoods all the while providing

for the baseline of citizen organization and participation necessary for effective community

policing. Indeed, and with the Hotspot program designed to use inter-agency collaboration

so as to lower crime through triangulated policing and social service provision, it appears

to have been a resounding success in improving quality of life within this implementation

context. In this respect, and in examining the partners involved, all appear relevant save for

the Parole and Probation Department. While it is theoretically included to ensure the

respect of parole and probation conditions in a neighborhood with a high concentration of

individuals facing such conditions, the inclusion of this department brings about the risk of

reducing neighborhood trust because of historically poor relationships between law

enforcement and poor minority communities. Indeed, and considering that the program

has actually reduced crime without addressing the poverty that is at the root of the

neighborhood’s criminogenic characteristics, more significant non-criminal justice job

training and vocational programs should have been tied to the program

Beginning with an overview of the program itself, OJDDP (1999) proposes that it has

involved federal funding to facilitate inter-agency collaboration targeting violent crime,

organized crime and gangs, the drug trade, and gun crime. In this respect, OJDDP (1990)

makes it clear that this model is one that simultaneously works to emphasize the virtues of

inter-agency cooperation so as to leverage different specialization to target crime in a

holistic fashion but also to empower communities so that they can play an important

participative role in terms of determining what their community priorities are, and how
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these should be pursued. With this, OJDDP (1999) makes it clear that this program is not

solely predicated upon inter-agency collaboration but also transforming community

stakeholders into agency analogs by empowering them to take collective action in relation

to crime prevention, and become full participants in the law enforcement process as it

occurs in their neighborhood.

With this in mind, the work of Artigiani (2001) points to a situation in which the

program reduced crime in the area by upwards of 20% between 1997 and 2000. Alongside

this, Artigiani (2001) makes it clear that over 50,000 citizens participated in one or more

community activities, 190,000 additional police hours were provided in the community, a

thousand individuals received assistance in relation to domestic violence, and youth

prevention programs were used so as to provide activities to 2,000 at-risk youth in the

community. With these results in mind, it becomes clear that the program was thus positive

in two ways. In the first instance, and while the community’s crime rate remains very high,

it has dropped significantly, and thus improved quality of life in the neighborhood.

Simultaneously, the community has clearly become empowered and has, through meetings

with law enforcement officials and neighborhood watches, taken on a proactive role in

terms of ensuring the safety of the community.

With the Hotspot Initiative clearly tied to the community-oriented policing model

that has predominated over the last two decades, the work of Oliver (2001) makes it clear

that such programs depend significantly on community cooperation, and longitudinal

community empowerment. With OJDDP (1999) making it clear that Baltimore Hotspot

program has led to the emergence of a committed core of residents as well as grassroots
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community organizing within the context of the program, it must be understood that the

program’s success is indeed likely partially predicated upon the degree to which it has

served to enhance the community’s sense of being a legitimate stakeholder in its own

future. In other words then, understanding the effectiveness of the Hotspot program as

presented by Artigiani (2001) requires understanding that this success is not solely

predicated upon the inter-agency collaboration associated with the program but also

because of the fact that this inter-agency collaboration has contributed to bringing about

the circumstances that community-oriented policing needs to work in any impoverished

high-crime jurisdiction.

This said however, the inclusion of Baltimore’s Parole and Probation Department

appears somewhat misguided. While OJDDP (1999) explains its inclusion because of the

high number of individuals on parole and probation in the neighborhood, the work of Tyler

(2005) makes it clear that minority trust in law enforcement is low because of

misunderstandings of law enforcement protocols. With Parole and Probation officers

tasked with implementing conditions that are often very specific in nature, their inclusion

in the program is problematic because their actions might not always be viewed as

appropriate by community stakeholders in the context of the distrust discussed by Tyler

(2005). Rather, the Department of Parole and Probation should have worked

independently and in parallel with the broader program. In turn, and given the high levels

of gun crime in the community mentioned by OJDDP (1999), the inclusion of an ATF task

force would have been warranted so as to track the guns being used in the context of the

violent crime rate that prevails in the community.

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Alongside this, and considering that the program seeks to empower a marginalized

community that is mired in poverty according to the work of OJDDP (1999), it would have

been positive if the program designers had included a significant number of vocational and

job training organizations so as to help the community mobilize itself in a manner that

would enhance the job opportunities available within it. Indeed, and with the relationship

between wealth disparities and crime long established in the literature, a full and

comprehensive inter-agency community intervention program of this sort would

necessarily include community organizations that could provide community stakeholders

with significant pathways to upwards social mobility through educational participation and

greater job market integration.

In the end, the Baltimore Hotspot program appears to have been successful

specifically because it has served to increase the degree of cooperation prevailing between

local law enforcement and one of the most disenfranchised neighborhoods in the city.

While the program has led to a very significant reduction in the neighborhood’s crime rate,

it must also be recognized that it remains immense, and that much work remains to be

done. In this respect, and while the program has served to bring about an effective and

significant reduction in crime within the area, it has done little to actually mitigate the root

causes of crime within the neighborhood. Indeed, and while the community organizing that

is occurring in the neighborhood is an important first step in terms of improving quality of

life within the neighborhood, it must be remembered that it is structural economic and

social variables that are primarily tied to poverty that represent the root causes of crime in

these circumstances. Thus, while this type of policing program can be incredibly important

in terms of improving quality of life through crime reduction, it does little to actually
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economically empower the marginalized communities that live in this area, and suffer the

brunt of these criminogenic factors.

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References

Artigiani, E.E. (2001). Maryland research in brief: Hotspot communities initiative phase 1.

Retrieved November 8, 2017, from

http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/pubs/20010801.pdf

OJJDP. (1999). Promising strategies to reduce gun violence. Retrieved November 7, 2017,

from

https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/cd_rom/solution_gang_crime/pubs/PromisingStrategi

estoReduceGunViolence.pdf

Oliver, W, M. (2001). Community-oriented policing: A systemic approach to policing. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Tyler, T.R. . (2005). Policing in black and white: Ethnic group differences in trust and

confidence in the police. Police quarterly, 8(3), 322-342.