Community Policing and Alcohol-Involved Crime

20世纪90年代社区警务计划的兴起导致许多地方执法机构定期组织针对预防犯罪的社区活动，包括每年300多万起与酒精有关的犯罪，估计每年产生840亿美元的成本。这类活动的例子包括街区聚会、教育研讨会和警察展览。虽然这种由警察领导的社区活动被广泛视为更广泛的社区警务战略的重要组成部分，但人们对这种活动如何影响酗酒犯罪知之甚少。该项目将使用美国许多司法管辖区的详细日常犯罪数据来研究警察/社区预防犯罪活动与酒精犯罪之间的关系。我们的分析将解决以下问题：1）警察领导的社区活动是否减少了酒后驾车，酗酒犯罪或其他犯罪？2)这些事件减少犯罪的效果能持续多久？3)社区警务活动的影响是否因社区或执法机构的特点而异？4)通过有效的社区警务活动避免犯罪的成本是多少？ 从理论上讲，加强警察与社区的接触可能使警察能够更有效地预防和调查犯罪，这似乎是合理的。然而，现有的实证研究并没有捕捉到社区警务对犯罪的因果影响，也没有让从业人员了解诸如召集警察领导的公共活动等战略如何有助于采取全面的公共卫生办法，减少与酒精和毒品有关的犯罪和暴力。此外，尽管社区警务活动往往包括旨在减少药物滥用的内容，但关于社区警务影响的工作一直侧重于暴力犯罪和第一类犯罪，很少关注与酒精或毒品有关的犯罪。 这项研究旨在通过使用专门识别与酒精和毒品有关的犯罪和家庭暴力事件的高频数据来衡量警务事件的影响。它利用了国家夜间活动（NNO）计划的变化，在此期间，警察/社区活动在数千个社区组织，每年在同一天举行。NNO活动在德克萨斯州举行的日期与美国其他州不同，提供了一个机会，可以使用差异研究设计来衡量社区警务活动的影响。除了对警察主导的活动的影响提供更可信的经验估计外，该研究还将表明这类活动在某些类型的社区或在处理特定类型的犯罪方面是否更有效。 这项研究将使政策制定者、警察局长和公众更好地了解警察领导的预防犯罪活动是否以及如何通过减少与酒精有关的犯罪和暴力来加强公共健康。它还将使利益攸关方能够更好地计算组织此类社区警务活动的投资回报。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The rise in community policing programs during the 1990s has led many local law enforcement agencies to regularly organize community events targeted at preventing crime, including the more than 3 million annual alcohol-related crimes that generate an estimated $84 billion in annual costs. Examples of such events include block parties, educational seminars, and police exhibitions. Although such police-led community events are widely viewed as an important component of a broader community policing strategy, little is known about how such activities affect alcohol-involved crime. This project will use detailed daily crime data across numerous U.S. jurisdictions to examine the relationship between police/community crime prevention events and alcohol- involved crime. Our analysis will address the following questions: 1) Do police-led community events reduce DUI, alcohol-involved crime, or other crimes? 2) How long do the crime-reducing effects of these events last? 3) Does the impact of community policing events vary according to the characteristics of the community or law enforcement agency? 4) What are the costs of crime avoided by effective community policing events? Theoretically it seems plausible that enhanced police-community engagement might allow police to more effectively prevent and investigate crime. However, existing empirical studies do not capture the causal effect of community policing on crime, nor do they permit practitioners to understand how a strategy such as convening police-led public events might contribute to an overall public health approach to reducing alcohol and drug-related crime and violence. Moreover, despite the fact that community policing events often include components designed to reduce substance misuse, work on the effects of community policing has focused on violent and Part I crime, with little attention given to alcohol or drug-related crime. This study seeks to measure the impacts of policing events by employing high-frequency data that specifically identifies incidents of alcohol and drug-related crime and domestic violence. It exploits variation arising from the National Night Out (NNO) program, during which police/community events are organized across thousands of communities and held each year on the same date. NNO events are held on a different date in Texas than in other U.S. states, furnishing an opportunity to measure the effects of community policing events using a differences-in-differences research design. In addition to providing more credible empirical estimates of the effects of police-led events, the study will demonstrate whether such events are more effective in certain types of communities or at addressing particular types of crime. This research will allow policymakers, police chiefs, and the public to better understand whether and how police-led crime prevention events can enhance public health by reducing alcohol-involved crime and violence. It will also allow stakeholders to better calculate the return on investment from organizing such community policing events.