Hello Everyone,
For May at CJ Access check out Editorials and Opinions where I examine whether the National Firearms Act has outlived its usefulness. Current firearms designs, the criminality, or lack thereof, associated with NFA weapons, and a faulty registration system used in prosecutions suggest it’s time to amend the National Firearms Act.
And on the Original Research front, I’m going to be starting a new research project utilizing unused data from my dissertation in an exploratory study of beat officer patrol patterns. During the ride-alongs with 59 officers, I tracked the patrol car movement throughout their patrol for approximately six hour periods. I have turn by turn directions, as well as the location in the beats for the calls for service, and self-initiated stops. I’m planning on analyzing this patrol and stop geographic and time data to examine questions such as;
Do some officers cover more area than others working the same beat and shift and is there a similarity in areas that officers think they should patrol?
How do the patrol patterns of each beat differ by shift?
Do some shifts on the beats engage in broader beat coverage and do some beats get broader coverage than others?
Determining the level of patrol based on the number of passes through areas of the beat and in areas surrounding calls for service and self-initiated stops and do officers focus their patrol closer to areas where they receive calls for service?
Data cleanup and operationalization is going to be first on the list and I’ll be providing updates as the research progresses.