Pre and post-test differences between Vietnamese and Latino residents involved in a community policing experiment - Reducing fear of crime and improving attitudes towards the police

To address a persistent crime problem in a large, high crime apartment comp lex occupied by Latino and Vietnamese immigrants in Garden Grove, Californi a, the local police department opened a storefront office. The purpose of t his study was to examine the impact this community policing effort had on t he residents of the complex in terms of reducing fear of crime and improvin g attributes towards the police. A questionnaire was administered to the re sidents before opening the storefront office and at the conclusion of the p roject. Despite group differences, the results revealed that the interventi on had a positive impact on both groups. Overall, Latinos reported less fea r of crime after the intervention and improved perception of the police. Th e Vietnamese reported more fear of crime than Latinos (pre and post) but le ss fear of crime after the intervention. However, their attitudes towards t he police, which were very positive on the pretest, dod not improve on the post-test.