Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Also available in print.

CAPES / Estudos mostram que a violência nas escolas resulta em consequências prejudiciais para as vítimas e para a sociedade. Entre os principais meios de prevenção da violência escolar tem-se o patrulhamento policial como o mais efetivo. O patrulhamento policial escolar é realizado por viaturas policiais que atendem a uma rede de escolas e consiste na manutenção das viaturas em cada escola da rede por um determinado período de tempo (patrulhamento de rotina). Contudo, durante o patrulhamento de rotina, as viaturas devem prestar atendimento imediato a chamadas de emergência em escolas da rede que não estejam sendo patrulhadas naquele momento (patrulhamento emergencial). O presente trabalho propõe um método baseado em modelos matemáticos para auxiliar o programa de patrulha escolar na definição das rotas de patrulhamento de rotina e rotas emergenciais. A abordagem aplicada para resolver o problema foi a de algoritmos de grafos. O patrulhamento de rotina foi por meio do Problema do caixeiro viajante e solucionado por meio da heurística do vizinho mais próximo e da meta-heurística de Busca tabu. A situação de emergência foi modelada utilizando o Caminho mais curto e as rotas emergenciais foram determinadas por meio do algoritmo de Floyd-Warshall. Um estudo de caso em uma rede de escolas foi utilizado para demonstrar a utilização do método. Os resultados mostram que o método proposto é efetivo para tratar o problema de seleção de rotas de patrulhamento escolar em cidades com restrições de recursos tecnológicos. / Studies have shown that school violence produces harmful effects on victims and society alike. Police patrols have proved to me the most effective among the main forms of preventing school violence. School police patrols take place using squad cars that serve a network of schools and consist of placing vehicles at network schools for a given period of time (routine patrol). Nevertheless, during routine patrol police vehicles must immediately answer emergency calls at network schools that are not being patrolled at that moment (emergency patrolling). This work proposes a method based on mathematical models to assist the school patrol program in defining the routes for routine patrol and emergency routes. The approach used to solve the problem consisted of graph algorithms. Routine patrol was treated as a model of the Traveling Salesman Problem, and was solved using the Nearest Neighbor Heuristic and Tabu Search metaheuristic. The emergency situation was modeled using the Shortest Path Problem, and emergency routes were determined through the Floyd-Warshall algorithm. A case study was used to demonstrate the application of the method. Results show that the proposed method is effective to treat the problem of route selection for school patrols in cities with shortcomings in technological resources.

The increasingly widespread use of surveillance as a cornerstone of crime control presents novel challenges to questions about personal autonomy, stigmatization, and the shape of social processes. In New York City, the end of stop-and-frisk policing meant the rise of “omnipresence,” built on a progression of the surveillance infrastructure. For residents of NYCHA public housing developments in New York City, the installation of highly visible surveillance structures provokes questions about the role of surveillance in increasing contact with the criminal justice system, as well about how use of these structures redefines spaces against a background of gentrification, a globalizing real estate market, and unbuffered income stratification. This project uses ethnographic methods, including interviews and participant observation to explore the phenomenology of social processes undertaken by individuals in relation to surveillance structures and to interrogate the use of surveillance in public housing. Engaging with the work of Bourdieu, Lefebvre, Wacquant, Goffman, and Sassen, the dissertation explores social ordering, stigmatization, norm durability, and place-making among NYCHA residents. The experiences of residents of neighborhoods that are on both sides of the city-wide demographic shifts associated with gentrification are further contrasted, contextualizing their interactions at the macro and micro levels. At the policy level, NYCHA housing becomes a focus of crime control measures as if containing public housing will address the root causes of crime. On the ground, however, cameras do not work to prevent crime, even when they are in good repair. Lights may make some individuals feel safer walking through courtyards late at night, but those same individuals fear that danger is just beyond the reach of the lights in the stairwells or playgrounds. If the cameras and lights fail to allay the fears of those in public housing, if their experiences with the system of surveillance have proven unsuccessful in preventing crime, giving the feeling of safety, or helping to solve crime, what is their purpose? This study posits that these structures are a spectacle. They are structures heavily laden with symbolism that reassure non-residents and residents alike of the neutralization of NYCHA residents. This symbolic dynamic ultimately stigmatizes NYCHA residents and pushes them further towards the systemic edge. Among the theoretical implications of the dissertation’s conclusions are an enhanced understanding of the connections between the persistence of social inequality, the “terra non grata” of certain urban spaces, and the dismantling of the social welfare state. The practical implications of this work are significant and add to discourses around the function of technology in the creation of new types of barriers.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

During the last 25 years in law enforcement in the United States, there has been a universal practice of foot and/or bicycle patrols used to accomplish the goal of police patrol enforcement and the philosophy of community policing in metropolitan areas. These tactics of patrol have also been used in police departments in and around the State of Texas. This report is a research project on six major metropolitan police departments in the State of Texas, analyzing their allocation of foot and/or bicycle patrol units within their urban cities. The study assesses their early history in using these two police tactics to address criminal activity and their progression from foot patrol to bicycle patrol. The findings of this research support the proposition that major Texas police departments have adopted the practices and philosophies of other major urban police departments around the US, by using foot and/or bicycle patrols in their cities. There is evidence that major Texas police departments were using foot patrol during the early 1980s in support of community policing and gradually phased out this practice in the early 1990s to adopt the new enforcement tactic of policing on a bicycle.

The research was conducted as a result of the long standing criticism against undercover operations due to the conduct of informers and agents during these operations. Since both undercover operations and informers are controversial issues it may cause serious judicial problems if the system is not applied correctly. The problem was investigated by means of qualitative research. A thorough literature study and semi-structured interviews were used to gather the required data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with advocates of the Director of Public Prosecutions Free State and detectives from the Organised Crime Unit of the South African Police Service. It has been found that undercover operations are an effective manner to address organised crime and especially precious metals related crimes. Undercover operations are an excellent barometer to determine the extent of organised crime. It gives investigators a clear view of the compilation of a syndicate and the roles of leaders, runners and associates. Informers are invaluable sources of information. Without the use of informers it will be virtually impossible to engage in undercover operations, since the police will have no intelligence to engage into an investigation of this nature. The implications of the findings are that it is the responsibility of investigators, agents and informers to keep the system transparent, fair and acceptable. Their conduct may never violate their mandate and the boundaries of the investigation. Undercover operations are justified when the system is properly administered, structured, controlled and without bias. / Forensic Investigation / M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)

This study aimed to analyse the development and growth of the Kenyan private security sector, and to establish its role and impact on safety and security. The study included determining the impact of the private security sector in Nairobi and the mobile patrol functions on safety and security in Kenya. Furthermore, to determine the impact of the Kenyan private security sector on loss prevention functions; reviewed how special events security and private investigation functions affect the safety and security of Kenyans; and also considered how in-house security functions of the private security sector further influence safety and security in Kenya. The researcher reviewed previous studies with a view to establish academic gaps which the present study sought to bridge. This study adopted a census survey design and employed quantitative research methods as the main approach to guide the study. The research targeted all of the private security firms in Kenya. There are 23 listed security firms under the Kenya Security Industry Association (KSIA) and 44 under the Protective Security Industry Association (PSIA) - a total of 67 security firms in Kenya. The research instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire to elicit the required information from the respondents. The respondents were either the Managing Director or Head of Security at these firms, since they have a broad knowledge about the business activities being conducted by the company. Most of them have been with the company for a significant number of years. Emanating from the research findings it is recommended that the security firms should better train the private security guards in order to enhance overall security being provided to clients. Security guards must be able to respond to different changes in their environment, which include action such as traffic movement; ensure the safety of people among and inside different localities; observing and handling the admittance and exit of individuals and cars and evaluating and monitoring individuals and coming up with a policy and legal framework for regulating and observing Private Security Company (PSC) activity. The study concludes that the private security sector in Kenya impacts on and influences overall safety and security. The study, therefore, finds that there has been growth and development of the private security sector in Kenya and it continues to do so currently. Finally, advances the view that a significant relationship does exist between the functions of the private security sector and the development of the private security sector in Kenya which have had an extensive influence on levels of safety and security in that country. / Criminology and Security Science / M. Tech. (Security Management)

The research was conducted as a result of the long standing criticism against undercover operations due to the conduct of informers and agents during these operations. Since both undercover operations and informers are controversial issues it may cause serious judicial problems if the system is not applied correctly. The problem was investigated by means of qualitative research. A thorough literature study and semi-structured interviews were used to gather the required data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with advocates of the Director of Public Prosecutions Free State and detectives from the Organised Crime Unit of the South African Police Service. It has been found that undercover operations are an effective manner to address organised crime and especially precious metals related crimes. Undercover operations are an excellent barometer to determine the extent of organised crime. It gives investigators a clear view of the compilation of a syndicate and the roles of leaders, runners and associates. Informers are invaluable sources of information. Without the use of informers it will be virtually impossible to engage in undercover operations, since the police will have no intelligence to engage into an investigation of this nature. The implications of the findings are that it is the responsibility of investigators, agents and informers to keep the system transparent, fair and acceptable. Their conduct may never violate their mandate and the boundaries of the investigation. Undercover operations are justified when the system is properly administered, structured, controlled and without bias. / Forensic Investigation / M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)

This study aimed to analyse the development and growth of the Kenyan private security sector, and to establish its role and impact on safety and security. The study included determining the impact of the private security sector in Nairobi and the mobile patrol functions on safety and security in Kenya. Furthermore, to determine the impact of the Kenyan private security sector on loss prevention functions; reviewed how special events security and private investigation functions affect the safety and security of Kenyans; and also considered how in-house security functions of the private security sector further influence safety and security in Kenya. The researcher reviewed previous studies with a view to establish academic gaps which the present study sought to bridge. This study adopted a census survey design and employed quantitative research methods as the main approach to guide the study. The research targeted all of the private security firms in Kenya. There are 23 listed security firms under the Kenya Security Industry Association (KSIA) and 44 under the Protective Security Industry Association (PSIA) - a total of 67 security firms in Kenya. The research instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire to elicit the required information from the respondents. The respondents were either the Managing Director or Head of Security at these firms, since they have a broad knowledge about the business activities being conducted by the company. Most of them have been with the company for a significant number of years. Emanating from the research findings it is recommended that the security firms should better train the private security guards in order to enhance overall security being provided to clients. Security guards must be able to respond to different changes in their environment, which include action such as traffic movement; ensure the safety of people among and inside different localities; observing and handling the admittance and exit of individuals and cars and evaluating and monitoring individuals and coming up with a policy and legal framework for regulating and observing Private Security Company (PSC) activity. The study concludes that the private security sector in Kenya impacts on and influences overall safety and security. The study, therefore, finds that there has been growth and development of the private security sector in Kenya and it continues to do so currently. Finally, advances the view that a significant relationship does exist between the functions of the private security sector and the development of the private security sector in Kenya which have had an extensive influence on levels of safety and security in that country. / Criminology and Security Science / M. Tech. (Security Management)

The security of its citizens is often regarded as the democratic state's primary raison d'etre. However, with increasing crime and perceptions of insecurity among citizens, along with actual and perceived state policing inadequacies, citizens around the world have sought to make alternative arrangements for their security. The explosion of private alternatives to state policing has resulted in the need for the replacement of former static definitions of policing by more fluid understandings of what policing entails. Policing is no longer an activity undertaken exclusively by the 'state police.' Policing needs to be understood within a framework which recognises the existence of a variety of state, commercial, community groups and individuals which exist within loose and sometimes informal, sometimes formal, networks to provide for the security of citizens. Preceding the country's transition to democracy in 1994 'state' policing in South Africa was aimed at monitoring and suppressing the black population and as a result it conducted itself in a largely militaristic way. When the government of national unity assumed power in 1994 it was indisputable that the South African Police had to undergo major reform if it was to play an effective, co-operative and accountable role in a democratic South Africa. While state policing has unquestionably undergone enormous changes since the advent of democracy in 1994, so too has non-state policing. It is widely accepted that the dividing line between state and non-state policing in South Africa is increasingly blurred. Policing, by its very nature, holds the potential to threaten democracy. Consequently it is important that policing is democratically controlled. According to the Law Commission of Canada four values and principles - justice, equality, accountability, and efficiency - should support policing in a democracy. This thesis is a case study of policing in Grahamstown, a small city in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. It will be shown that the policing problem that currently plagues Grahamstown, and by extension South Africa, is not simply the result of a shortage of providers but rather a problem of co-coordinating and monitoring security governance to ensure that the city does not further develop into a society where the wealthy have greater access to security than the poor.