Hot Spot Policing

Public Safety & Justice
Written By Cassie

Hot spot policing is often described as “flooding neighborhoods with police.” That misunderstands both the scale and the mechanism.

Definition

Hot spot policing is a strategy that concentrates resources on micro-locations—specific intersections, addresses, or blocks—where a disproportionate share of crime clusters.

Technical meaning vs common usage

  • Technical: place-based deployment guided by crime data or calls for service.

  • Common usage: aggressive patrols across entire neighborhoods.

How the term gets stretched or misused

The term is often misused by:

  • equating hot spots with communities rather than locations

  • assuming enforcement-only tactics

  • ignoring how selection criteria shape outcomes

Where the power sits

Results depend on implementation choices:

  • how hot spots are identified

  • which tactics are used once identified

  • how long resources stay concentrated before shifting elsewhere

This does not mean…

  • Hot spot policing always means more arrests.

  • Hot spots describe whole neighborhoods.

  • Crime reduction automatically preserves trust.

Why precision matters

If hot spot policing is treated as a single tactic, debates miss the real levers: site selection, tactical mix, and displacement effects.

Neutrality note

This definition describes hot spot policing as a deployment strategy based on crime concentration, not as an endorsement or critique of policing outcomes, tactics, or community impacts.

Related HISW

Sources

Sources below explain hot spot policing as a crime concentration and resource allocation strategy.

  • National Academies of Sciences — *Proactive Policing* (2018) https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24928/proactive-policing

  • National Institute of Justice — *Hot Spot Policing* (2014) https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/hot-spot-policing

Cassie
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