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Are US citied underpoliced?
Are US cities underpoliced? The two references cited in the video are: Chalfin, A., & McCrary, J. (2018). Are U.S. cities underpoliced?...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jul 3, 20251 min read


Making foot patrol a success
For details of a randomized controlled trial that demonstrated the value of foot patrol, see the Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment....
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jul 2, 20251 min read


What is evidence-based policing?
What is evidence-based policing? An approach where police officers and staff create, review, and use the best available evidence to...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jul 2, 20251 min read
Jerry Lee lecture notes (Stockholm, June 14, 2023)
It was a real privilege to deliver the Jerry Lee lecture at the Stockholm Criminology Symposium in 2023. My thanks to Jerry Lee, Larry...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jun 13, 20232 min read


Ways to use the Reducing Crime podcast in class, updated for summer 2025
Looking for multimedia for your fall policing class? Here are ten topics covered by the @_ReducingCrime podcast with some ideas for...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jul 12, 20224 min read


Fatal shootings by police; a podcast clarification
In my podcast episode with Dr. Phil Goff I outlined some rough estimates on numbers of people shot and killed by police in a year, and...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Mar 24, 20204 min read


What Compstat can learn from The Russia House
The publication of a new novel by the master of the spy genre John le Carré got me thinking about one of his other works, the underrated...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Nov 5, 20193 min read


Ella Cockbain
Further information related to Ella Cockbain's Reducing Crime podcast episode.
Jerry Ratcliffe
Sep 22, 20191 min read


Ten ways to use the @_ReducingCrime podcast in class
Ideas for instructors looking for ways to add interesting multimedia activities to their class.
Jerry Ratcliffe
Aug 1, 20192 min read


Evidence hierarchy
After a course assignment in my evidence-based policing class, it was clear that a few of my students were still struggling with the...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Apr 2, 20191 min read


PIVOT (Place-based Investigations of Violent Offender Territories)
In this guest blog, Dr. Tamara Herold explains the award-winning PIVOT project and how Cincinnati has used it to reduce crime and...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jan 10, 20194 min read
Gun buy-back programs (a primer)
What is it? Gift certificates, cash or other forms of compensation given, usually anonymously, in exchange for firearms. Does it work?...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Dec 19, 20182 min read
Hot spots policing (a primer)
What is it? Hot spots policing strategies increase police attention to places with concentrated criminal opportunities. Does it work? Hot...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Dec 17, 20182 min read


Operation Winter Shield
In this guest blog, vignette author Police Scotland Chief Inspector Martin Gallagher outlines Operation Winter Shield. In chapter 4 of Reducing Crime , Martin wrote about the development of his Grey Space Group, a collection of local minority group leaders who meet with police to get ahead of issues and any tensions in his command area. In this blog, he describes how progress in reducing crime is not just a matter of issuing orders, but instead involves understanding the cont
Jerry Ratcliffe
Oct 16, 20184 min read


How to use reducingcrime.com
The Reducing Crime website supports readers of the book in a number of ways. First, the chapters pages provide links to additional...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Oct 7, 20181 min read


How long division taught me to think about crime
On a recent intelligence-led policing course I was teaching in El Salvador, we were talking about how to tackle complicated problems. And...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jan 13, 20183 min read
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