Great success from the Knoxville Explorer's Unit:

The Knoxville Police Department's (KPD) Explorers just concluded a Holiday Crime
Prevention Project at West Town and Knoxville Center Malls. Back in
November, Captain Catlett asked the Explorer Unit to put together an
operation that would involve staffing the malls on the weekends during the
holiday season. Their duties would include handing out crime prevention
literature, conducting high visibility patrols inside the mall, answering
the questions of shoppers, and relaying any criminal activity they notice to
patrol officers and mall security.

In preparation for this operation, the Explorers undertook some new
training. Sgt Mike McCarter talked with them about crime prevention and
reviewed the literature he had available for them to distribute. Bill Smith
reviewed with them the crime analysis information for the malls from the
last few years. They then discussed what seemed to be the historical
problems at each mall. Lt Bobby Hubbs taught them Community Policing and
Problem Oriented Policing to get them to think outside the box on the
problems they were going to be addressing. The advisors then spent time with
the Explorers reviewing patrol procedures and public relations.

Armed with all this training, and personalized crime prevention handouts
from Sgt McCarter, the Explorers began working the malls on Friday November
28, the day after Thanksgiving. Over the course of the next four weeks, they
worked every Friday from 1700 to 2200, and Saturday and Sunday from 1200 to
2000. Over the twelve-day period they logged about 380 man-hours, handed out
over 1400 crime prevention flyers, and assisted patrol and mall security on
numerous non-violent calls. During this same time period, KPD Reserve
officers periodically worked patrolling the parking lots, SkyWatch Units
were deployed at each mall, and patrol officers were spot-checking the lots
and malls themselves.

After the operation was over, Bill Smith returned with the new analysis to
include 2008 to see if their efforts made a difference. After watching an
overall steady increase in the reported crime at these two locations since
2002, the rates fell in 2008. While Knoxville Centers reported crime only
fell 1% (115 -114), West Towns reported crime fell 28% (87-63). The fact
that crime remained near the same at one location, and fell considerably at
the other, really motivated the Explorers. Many of them admitted that after
hearing of the assignment, they thought it was trivial and would not help
matters. Now with the numbers in, they realize the important role that they
played just by being seen and speaking to shoppers. The Explorer Unit is
planning to submit the operation and its results for a National Explorer
Crime Prevention Award that is presented to one post each year. They are
also already making plans and suggestions to complete the operation next
season.

Examples of the changes in crime from 2007 to 2008 were:
Auto Theft: Knoxville Center 11 down to 3
Robbery: West Town 3 down to 1
Shoplifting: West Town 23 down to 13
Auto Burglary: Knoxville Center 6 down to 4 / West Town 22 down to 3

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