Street-Level Drug Law Enforcement: A Meta- Analytic Review

Background: An atmosphere of ineffectiveness regarding the ability of police to address crime problems in general and street-level drug problems in particular prevailed in the 1980s. Law enforcement tactics in the 1980s were typically reactive, unfocused and generally failed to disrupt street-level drug market activity. Development of focused proactive policing strategies during the 1990s, such as problem-oriented policing and partnerships with third parties, led to a renewed faith in the capacity of the police to efficaciously deal with street-level drug problems. Objectives: To utilize meta-analytic procedures to assess the relative effectiveness of police-led drug law enforcement interventions. Specifically, we examined the relative effectiveness of a number of policing approaches, including problem-oriented policing, community-wide policing, and hotspots policing compared to the standard, reactive mode of drug law enforcement that dominated police practice until the 1990s. Search Strategy: We identified relevant studies using a guided, iterative search process utilizing appropriate keyword searches of major databases from various disciplines. In addition, we hand searched key journals in the law enforcement literature, trawled discipline relevant websites, consulted key researchers, postgraduate students, and criminal justice librarians, and cross-checked the reference list of each identified study. Selection Criteria: We restricted our meta-analysis to interventions initiated, managed and/or implemented by the police to reduce or prevent illicit drug use, drug dealing and associated problems at drug dealing places. We investigated the impact of these interventions on a number of outcome variables, including drug outcomes using drugrelated calls for service and reported offenses, as well as reported offenses and calls for service outcomes for non-drug specific outcomes such as property crime, violent offences, and disorder. The review imposed no time restrictions (i.e. publication year) and we included unpublished literature (i.e. dissertations, reports, etc) and nonEnglish language studies. Included studies all needed, at a minimum, a pre-test/posttest, comparison group design. Our review included quasi-experimental designs given the lack of methodologically sound evaluations in this area. Data Collection & Analysis: We used meta-analytic techniques to investigate the effectiveness of various drug law enforcement approaches on the outcome variables of interest. Specifically, we used the odds ratio to assess pre-test to post-test intervention effects, using a random effects model. We analysed separately the effect of drug law enforcement on each of the outcomes of interest. Main Results: Our results show that problem-oriented and community-wide policing approaches are more effective at reducing drug calls for service and drug incidents than law enforcement approaches that target drug hotspots. We also find that problem-oriented