Crime and Demand for Police

Abstract

This paper studies how exposure to crime affects demand for policing using a unique setting where both crime and demand for police can be measured at the neighborhood level. I use precinct-level returns from ballot measures in San Francisco to provide novel evidence on how individuals’ support for pro-police policies responds to exposure to crime. Using variation in criminal activity across neighborhoods around election day, I find that each additional violent crime leads to an increase in support for police union-endorsed ballot positions ranging from 2.9 percentage points for homicides to 0.4 percentage points for lesser crimes. The effects are largest in neighborhoods with high shares of white residents.

Keywords: H72, H41, D72