Final answer:
The Kansas City patrol study showed that variations in routine patrol presence had no significant impact on crime rates or community perceptions of crime, challenging previous assumptions about the deterrent effects of visible police presence.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Kansas City patrol study conducted in 1972 and 1973 was a pivotal research project that sought to understand the impact of police patrol on crime rates and public perception. This study contrasted with earlier precedents, such as Frances Heussenstamm's work on police prejudice, and the well-known incidents such as the beating of Rodney King. Unlike these, which dealt with the outcomes of police interactions and incidents, the Kansas City study was a controlled experiment to specifically assess police patrol efficacy.
The study's design involved dividing the patrol areas into different beats, and then assigning normal, doubled, and no patrol conditions to each. These variations allowed researchers to observe differences in crime rates and citizen fear of crime across different patrol levels.
What the study demonstrated was quite counterintuitive at the time: increasing or decreasing routine police patrols in an area did not significantly affect the incidence of crime or public sentiment.