Excerpt from Uniform Crime Reports for the United States, 1961 Crime is a social problem and a community responsibility which crosses all walks of life. Yet from time to time unfair pressures, often political in nature, are brought to bear on a police department which has exposed a local crime problem. This happens despite the fact that law enforcement efforts to control crime are basically lim ited to effective preventive patrol and deterrence through successful investigation. Crime, like a disease, can only be treated after identification and full exposure. It cannot be erased by employing different and less repugnant terms for criminal acts, thus, in a sense, defining them out of existence. Law enforcement is a public service and as such imposes an obliga tion on each executive head of a department to advise his community of crime conditions, whether favorable or unfavorable, and the extent and the effectiveness of the police operation. For the most part, this is done through the use of crime statistics, which we in law enforce ment should look upon as a means to measure the blood pressure of the department. They will indicate weaknesses and strength, as well as suggest certain Operational and administrative needs; The purpose of crime reporting then is dual; namely, public disclosure and internal appraisal. Law enforcement records are the basic source of crime data, and the police executive, because of his daily experience with crime incidents, is uniquely qualified to interpret crime counts. It is extremely important that the chief or sheriff in releasing these numbers also make available his knowledge of their meaning. This should include the wide range of circumstances involved in each crime classification, general facts about the types of persons who commit these crimes, assistance that can be rendered by local citizens in reducing the opportunity for crime, and particularly the limitations of the police prevention and deterrence efforts. Although the responsibility for reversing our crime trend is vested in the entire community, law enforcement fulfills its obligation by effectively carrying out its traditional role and by taking the leader ship in directing community attention to specific crime problems, including public indifference. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.