Are suppression and deterrence mechanisms enough? Examining the “pulling levers” drug market intervention strategy in Peoria, Illinois, USA

BackgroundPolice agencies across the globe enforce laws that prohibit drug transportation, distribution, and use with varying degrees of effectiveness. Within the United States, law enforcement strategies that rely on partnerships between criminal justice officials, neighbourhood residents, and social service providers (i.e., collaborative implementation) have shown considerable promise for reducing crime and disorder associated with open-air drug markets. The current study examines a comprehensive police enforcement strategy conducted in Peoria, Illinois (USA) designed to reduce patterns of crime and violence associated with an open-air drug market in a specific neighbourhood.MethodsChange in neighbourhood crime was assessed using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) interrupted time series analysis. Further, target area residents were surveyed to gauge their awareness of the police intervention as well as perceived changes in local crime patterns.ResultsAnalyses indicate that the intervention did not produce significant changes in neighbourhood crime offense rates between pre- and post-intervention periods. In addition, the majority of surveyed residents within the target area did not demonstrate an awareness of the intervention nor did they report perceived changes in local crime patterns.ConclusionsStudy findings suggest that police-led approaches in the absence of high levels of community awareness and involvement may have less capacity to generate crime-control when focusing on open-air drug markets. We propose that police agencies adopting this strategy invest considerable resources toward achieving community awareness and participation in order to increase the potential for attaining significant and substantive programmatic impact.