Citizen Oversight and the Ferguson Effect: The Impact of Police Accountability

• In Event: Representation at the Frontline: Local Policing and Enforcement

Abstract

Citizen protests against the use of excessive force by police have prompted concerns about a so-called ‘Ferguson effect.’ Proponents suggest that challenges to police legitimacy have increased the cost of policing errors, leading to an increase in homicides of police officers (HPOs) as well as violent crime. We examine the impact of citizen oversight agencies (COAs) on HPOs and violent crime to assess the broader theoretical argument that an increase in accountability reduces police effectiveness. Using original survey data and panel methods, we find that COAs with broad authority reduce HPOs, while those with limited authority increase HPOs. COAs were not found to have any impact on violent crime. One explanation for these results is that police accountability, when effective, confers legitimacy on police, which in turn reduces or at least prevents an increase in the above outcomes. Our findings thus challenge the notion that increased accountability reduces policing effectiveness.

Authors

• Mir Usman Ali, Indiana University

• Sean Nicholson-Crotty, Indiana University, Bloomington