External Effects and the Organization of Policing in Metropolitan Areas

• NCJ Number: 83378
• Author(s): J P McIver
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 40 pages
• Grant Number(s): GI 43949; APR 74-14059 A03
• Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation
• Corporate Author: Indiana University
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This report was prepared for the 1980 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology in San Francisco, California, November 5-8, 1980.

Annotation

The empirical basis for interagency cooperation in policing metropolitan areas is examined, and the range of cooperative and consolidated arrangements among police service producers is described.

Abstract

The National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals has stated that 'Criminal activity is often multijurisdictional. The success of each police agency in its operations has a direct effect on the criminal activity in neighboring jurisdictions. The police chief executive must recognize certain criminal activity as a regional problem and realize that coping with it requires regional coordination.' Despite this statement, the type and magnitude of positive and negative effects of direct and auxiliary police services have not been fully catalogued, and the role of special enclave law enforcement producers and overlapping agencies (primarily county and State police) agencies has not been adequately examined. This study is designed to fill some of these gaps in knowledge. The research reviewed provides some evidence that criminals are mobile and that police may have some impact on whether crimes are committed locally or in the next town. It is not yet known what types of interjurisdictional cooperation affect this type of crime, to what extent displaced crime and more generally all crime externalities affect interagency arrangements, and whether overlapping agencies impact local crime rates and external effects; therefore, there is little empirical basis for specific recommendations for the reorganization of policing. The beginnings of a conceptual framework for studying the relationship between criminal activity and interjurisdictional cooperation among police agencies are presented. This effort illustrates some of the difficulties researchers will have in establishing a link between externalities and activities designed to reduce or increase them. The data merely suggest that cooperative activities may be a function of displaced crime. Tabular and graphic data, 60 bibliographic references, and 4 footnotes are provided.