Testing application-based tasking and hotspots policing in a geographically large, non-metropolitan police service: a two-in-one randomised trial

This study is concerned with randomised testing of hotspots policing, using targeted patrols of Joint Operations Unit officers to hotspots of violent crime through use of a newly developed mobile phone application in Thames Valley Police, the largest non-metropolitan policing agency in the United Kingdom.

Results show that the tasking via app led to dramatically increased officer time in hotspots. An 8.74% decrease in violent crime was seen but was non-significant, and with lower effect sizes than have been found elsewhere.
This mobile app also seems to have been very successful in getting officers to stay in a hotspot for the optimum amount of time based on previous research.  

Using a tasking application provided a cost-effective mechanism for achieving hotspots patrols using business-as-usual resources. Traditionally designed hotspots didn’t appear optimal for policing violent crime in Thames Valley, and these need to be redesigned to work for the geography and crime density in Thames Valley. Further research should test redesigned hotspots.

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