(iPoster) Permanent Infrastructure and Public Safety: Subway Crime in NYC

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence; Policy Challenges and Innovations; & Institutional Constraints and Government Performance in Multilevel Systems
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Policy Challenges and Innovations

Abstract

Can non-personnel environmental infrastructure improvements deter crime in mass transit systems? Expanding police presence can reduce crime, but it also carries risks of community resistance, unequal burdens on marginalized groups, and diminished governmental legitimacy. We argue that visible infrastructure improvements reduce crime by upholding social norms of order and by signaling state capacity and attentiveness -- two endogenous processes through which environmental changes alter expectations for both the public and potential offenders. We test this claim by analyzing the Metropolitan Transit Authority's staggered implementation of a renovation program in New York City, which systematically upgraded cleaning and physical repairs across 472 subway stations. Using a suite of complementary difference-in-differences estimators, we find that station upgrades reduced subway-related complaints by 32% to 40%. Our project speaks to how cities can co-produce public safety through non-personnel environmental interventions.

Authors

• Kyle Van Rensselaer, New York University

• Bryant James Moy, New York University