Policing has become an increasingly evidence-based profession in recent decades, and law enforcement leaders and organizations are advocating for the performance and application of research in the field. In one such research effort, the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department (KCPD) partnered with the Rutgers Center on Public Security (RCPS) to implement Risk-Based Policing (RBP).
Although relatively new to policing, RBP is a reliable strategy that addresses crime, disorder, and other problems faced by police agencies.1 Leslie Kennedy, Joel Caplan, and Eric Piza, leading researchers in criminal justice, define RBP as “the operational mindset and practice of reducing and managing place-based crime risks to prevent crime incidents.”2 With a focus on policing places, not people, RBP equips agencies of any size with data analytics and other tools to solve specific problems encountered in their jurisdictions at root levels.
