The Politics of Police Protection

• In Event: Poster Session: Urban Politics & International Order, Environmental Issues, and IPE
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Urban Politics

Abstract

Little is known about how changes to the number of police officers within communities could translate into political outcomes. Do changes in police force size affect individual’s expectations of crime and consumer investments in private security? Are voters mobilized when they expect diminished police surveillance? Do they feel that they can trust local governing institutions when police manpower is scaled back or expanded? Using data from a survey experiment, this study investigates how changes in police numbers affect political outcomes (i.e., voting, protesting, etc. and attitudes) both across and within racial groups. I investigate whether crime expectations serve as a potential mechanism for the effect of police on participation and whether this relationship holds for all groups.

Author

• Brandon Romero, University of Michigan