Kansas City Gun Experiment, Research in Brief

Axios
Policing

Solution types
Firearms-Focused Policing

Problems addressed

Armed violence

Effectiveness

Promising

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Life periods served

People of all ages

Where the program was applied

Community (streets or community centers)

Country of application

United States

Description

This is a patrol program focused on hot spots with the highest incidence of gun crime.
Police sweeps (in an 8x10-block area) were conducted in Kansas City for 29 weeks, and increased patrols were conducted at locations identified by computer analysis as having a high number of gun crimes in the target area.
The deployed officers focused exclusively on gun detection through proactive, targeted patrols and were not required to respond to calls for service.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed that in the 29 weeks prior to the start of the program and in the 29 weeks of program activity, there was a 65% increase in weapons seized and a 49% reduction in gun crime in the target area. There was no increase in gun seizures and no reduction in gun crime in the comparison area [1].
Traffic stops were the most productive means of finding illegal guns, yielding an average of one gun discovered every 28 stops. Gun crime did not increase significantly at any of the seven surrounding patrol stops, demonstrating that there was no displacement effect [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Sherman, L. W., Shaw, J. W., & Rogan, D. P. (1995). The Kansas City gun experiment: Research in brief. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.

Information source