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Improving police services: Evidence from the French Quarter Task Force

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  • Cheng, Cheng
  • Long, Wei

Abstract

This study sheds light on the improvement of police services by examining the French Quarter Task Force (FQTF) – an anti-crime program in New Orleans' French Quarter. First, we provide new evidence that increasing police presence is effective in crime prevention. Our difference-in-differences estimates suggest that the FQTF, which increased police visibility in the French Quarter, reduced robberies, aggravated assaults, and thefts by 37.4%, 16.9%, and 13%, respectively. Second, our findings imply that the proper use of monitoring and incentive strategies has the potential to further improve police services. Exploiting the program's change in management, we find that providing officers with more monitoring and performance incentives led the FQTF to reduce robberies by 22.12 and aggravated assaults by 5.56 each quarter.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheng, Cheng & Long, Wei, 2018. "Improving police services: Evidence from the French Quarter Task Force," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-18.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:164:y:2018:i:c:p:1-18
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.05.002
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    3. Nils Braakmann, 2022. "Does stop and search reduce crime? Evidence from street‐level data and a surge in operations following a high‐profile crime," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(3), pages 1370-1397, July.
    4. Blackstone, Erwin A. & Hakim, Simon & Meehan, Brian, 2020. "Burglary reduction and improved police performance through private alarm response," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
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    6. Boylan, Richard T., 2022. "Should cities disband their police departments?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    7. Cheng, Cheng & Long, Wei, 2022. "The effect of highly publicized police killings on policing: Evidence from large U.S. cities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    8. Francis Petterini & Akauã Flores, 2021. "Copula econometrics to simulate effects of private policing on crime," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 1241-1254.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Police services; Police presence; Monitoring and incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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