The Impact of Female Officers on Crime Victimization and Reporting

• In Event: Policing and Public Safety

Abstract

This paper examines how deploying female police officers influences future crime victimization and reporting, using data from 911 calls in Dallas, Texas. To address the issue of officers being endogenously assigned to calls, I exploit a unique staffing structure where officer shifts are predetermined based on fixed schedules. Leveraging this variation within a two-way fixed-effects framework, I measure changes in household behavior based on the availability of female officers during identical shifts (defined by beat, day of the week, and 8-hour time slots) over time.

I find that households visited by female officers are 5.5 percentage points less likely to place a similar 911 call within the subsequent 90 days, representing a 30% reduction from the baseline rate of 17.9%. Using complementary data from non-emergency 311 calls, I confirm this decline is driven by reduced victimization rather than decreased reporting. The results suggest this protective effect stems from female officers investing more effort into interactions—spending additional time with callers and fostering greater trust in public institutions.

Author

• Ryan Hunter Longmuir, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author