Citation

Tarlow P. Crime Prev. Community Safety 2000; 2(1): 55-58.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group -- Palgrave-Macmillan)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Ever since the 1980s, when the state of Florida received a great deal of negative publicity due to the unfortunate murders of and assaults on foreign tourists, 2 the United States has become aware that its tourism industry requires a safe and secure environment in which to thrive. Prior to that, few US police departments were aware of their responsibilities toward the tourism industry. In fact, when early studies of US police departments' involvement with tourism were written,3 most departments stated that they took pride in the fact that they treated tourists just like anyone else. The idea that tourists were at high risk of crime,4 that local police might need special training in working with a location.s out-of-town guests, or that the industry needed special protection was simply unknown to most US police departments. The following provides a glimpse of the history of what has come to be known in the United States today as Tourism Oriented Policing Services (TOPS), and provides an overview of some of the major changes that have taken place in the country during the last decade. The article addresses the following areas: 1) a brief overview of TOPS in the United States;�some of the major conferences that have taken place there;2) some of the key principles upon which TOPS has been based; and 3) some of the academic work on tourism safety issues carried out in the United States.