NCJ Number
85384
Date Published
1981
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Using burglary data from Los Angeles, this study examines the case for police consolidation because of crime spillovers in metropolitan areas where police services are provided by numerous independent, uncoordinated police agencies.
Abstract
Burglary data from Los Angeles districts do not support the contention that spillovers are extensive nor that jurisdictional consolidation is likely to alter significantly the quantity of spillovers. Although an alternative measure was used to reflect economic incentives to offender mobility, the empirical results are basically in accord with those of earlier studies. Still, there are several reasons to view the results of this study as tentative. First, theoretical analysis of the crime market does not indicate that spillovers will be readily observable in cross-sectional data. A more accurate test for spillovers would be to conduct a time series analysis to determine whether spillover effects tend to change as alterations in police inputs routinely occur. Secondly, this study investigates only one of the numerous claims that have been made for consolidating urban police departments. Another important argument is that consolidation, especially of small departments, will lower costs due to economies of scale in police service provision. Tabular data, 13 notes, and 22 references are provided. (Author summary modified)