Satisfaction With Police in Violent Crime Hot Spots: Using Community Surveys as a Guide for Selecting Hot Spots Policing Tactics

This article argues that citizens’ perceptions of police can aid in selecting appropriate hot spots policing tactics and models satisfaction with police as evidenced by respondents who live or work in violent crime hot spots. Survey data (N = 630) were collected by randomly sampling addresses within violent crime hot spots in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The results reveal that being younger, or more educated, or perceiving higher procedural injustice, or higher social disorder, or being more fearful of crime, all link to lower satisfaction with police in violent crime hot spots. To maintain or improve public satisfaction with police services in hot spots, police departments should adopt tactics that are not only effective in reducing crime but also procedurally just, reduce fear of crime, and address social disorder problems.