Also by Joseph Petrocelli

Fortunately, research and progressive thinking have yielded some promising practices for bridging the gap to the Arab American community. Many of these ideas are rooted in pre-existing community policing concepts.

September means back to school time. And you, as police officers, are charged with the task of protecting society's most vulnerable citizens—its youth—from the very ominous threat posed by high volume traffic.

Daily, some 135,000 convenience stores in the U.S. serve 100 million Americans who find their easy in-and-out access appealing. Unfortunately, such convenience isn't lost on criminals who have historically found convenience stores equally attractive.

Arresting a day laborer can be frustrating, time-consuming, and fruitless for a patrol officer.

The majority of burglar alarm activations are not by bad guys. False alarms account for 10 to 25 percent of all calls to the police. Each call usually requires the response of two officers for 20 minutes. In 2002, American police responded to 36 million alarm calls, costing $1.8 billion.

There is a long recognized relationship between tourism and crime. Much of this can be attributed to "vacation behavior," a general carefree attitude that translates into carelessness and leaves the tourist vulnerable.

In a Broken Windows crime model, graffiti is one of those foothold crimes that leads to a neighborhood's decay.

Thefts from cars usually involve a small amount of property value, but put a large strain on police resources. These thefts increase citizens' fear of crime and diminish the public confidence in their police.

Though almost all bank robberies are investigated by the FBI, there is much that a local agency can do to assist in the prevention and apprehension of bank robbers.

Members of street gangs and drug dealers are unlikely to redress their grievances through the criminal justice system. If their territory is invaded or if they are victims of drive-by shootings, they are much more likely to seek retribution with drive-by shootings of their own.

Panhandling can be found in almost every community and takes on many different forms. The unsympathetic view holds that panhandlers are the beginnings of decay within a community and the foothold for disorder and crime.

While such acts are rarely reported in the media, one in three schools has reported acts of vandalism each year. In 1990 more than $600 million in damage to school property was caused by vandals. By understanding the nuances of vandalistic acts, patrol officers can develop specialized responses to help minimize future attacks.

Banks like ATMs because they don't require renting a whole building or paying a teller to provide services to their customers. Citizens love ATMs for the convenience. Robbers also love Automated Teller Machines.

At first, the term "stalking" was mostly associated only with cases involving deranged, obsessed fans who were harassing beautiful movie stars. But statistics show that one in 12 women and one in 45 men are victims of stalking at least once in their lifetime.

Driving a taxi is one of the most dangerous professions. Drivers are sent alone to isolated areas, including high-crime neighborhoods to pick up strangers. They work early mornings and late nights, and they carry a lot of cash. So it's not surprising that taxi drivers are often assaulted, robbed, and killed.

Research shows that approximately five percent of U.S. citizens have a serious mental illness. What this means for law enforcement is that approximately seven percent of police contacts involve a mentally ill person and 10 to 15 percent of incarcerated persons are mentally ill.

Today, street racing is a problem in almost every American community, as technology such as the Internet and text messaging have made it easy to stage underground races for substantial audiences.

A budget motel can be an epicenter of crime in a neighborhood. Problems at these "no-tell motels" can range from loud parties and public disorder to drug lab and prostitution operations.