Evaluation of a suburban crime prevention team

Abstract

The Crime Prevention Portfolio of ACT Policing introduced the Suburban crime prevention team (SCPT), a community policing initiative, into the Canberra suburb of Narrabundah in late August 2002. This team of two uniformed officers was deployed to Narrabundah for a six-month period and given the task of operating as community policing officers exclusively within the suburb boundary. This report is the final evaluation of that initiative. The evaluation was based on multiple methodologies, involving qualitative and quantitative data and both process- and outcome-based measures, and each of the eight objectives of the initiative is individually addressed. The report finds, overall, that while the development of the SCPT was limited in many ways, it was still a project that had a positive impact on the Narrabundah community and thus demonstrates both the potential and the need for community policing in the ACT. The report concludes by making a number of key recommendations and identifying issues for the development of future SCPTs.