Toledo Prolific Offender Surveillance and Apprehension Team

The Smart Policing Initiative seeks to build upon the concepts of offender-based and place-based policing and broaden the knowledge of effective policing strategies. The most convincing research demonstrates that place-based or hotspot policing reduces violent crime and neighborhood disorder. This initiative addresses the need for effective policing that requires a tightly focused, collaborative approach that is measurable, based on sound, detailed analysis and includes policies and procedures for accountability. This grant program seeks to build upon data-driven, evidence-based policing by encouraging state and local law enforcement agencies to develop effective, economical, and innovative responses to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime, or in a type or types of crime within their jurisdictions.

The City of Toledo, Toledo Police Department (TPD), will utilize Smart Policing Initiative grant funds, in partnership with a research partner, to develop a Prolific Offenders Surveillance and Apprehension Team (POSAT). The POSAT will be responsible for identifying prolific offenders in the community. Recent criminological research indicates that a small percentage of the criminal population is responsible for committing a majority of the crime in most communities. Prolific, repeat offenders appear to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime wherever they reside. Recent post-arrest interviews and a review of arrest records reveal that this also seems to be the case in Toledo, Ohio. This evidence suggests that targeting prolific offenders may result in notable decreases in city-wide and neighborhood specific crime.

The POSAT will target prolific offenders by conducting surveillance and proactive investigation, apprehending prolific offenders when sufficient evidence of a felony crime exists, and working in close cooperation with the prosecutor's office to assist with prosecution of the offender. The research partner will examine the effectiveness of the POSAT's ability to apprehend targeted prolific offenders, as well as the incarceration rate, conviction rates, and sentence length of targeted offenders. The research partner will also examine the aggregate decrease in crime in the areas where POSAT target arrests occur, provide estimates of the number of potential crimes prevented due to each arrest, and the average duration of any crime reduction. CA/NCF