Change in neighbourhood crime was assessed using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) interrupted time series analysis. Further, target area residents were surveyed to gauge their awareness of the police intervention as well as perceived changes in local crime patterns.
Analyses indicate that the intervention did not produce significant changes in neighbourhood crime offense rates between pre- and post-intervention periods. In addition, the majority of surveyed residents within the target area did not demonstrate an awareness of the intervention nor did they report perceived changes in local crime patterns.
Study findings suggest that police-led approaches in the absence of high levels of community awareness and involvement may have less capacity to generate crime-control when focusing on open-air drug markets. We propose that police agencies adopting this strategy invest considerable resources toward achieving community awareness and participation in order to increase the potential for attaining significant and substantive programmatic impact.