The Effect of Police Manpower on Traffic Fatalities

• In Event: Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

Using panel data for 1975-2010, we study the impact of state, county and municipal police manpower on traffic fatalities. In order to adjust for measurement errors in police data, we propose an instrumental variables strategy in which we instrument for the Uniform Crime Reports measure of police manpower using data on government employment from the U.S. Census. Preliminary models suggest that police have large and meaningful effects on traffic fatalities indicating an alternative mechanism through which police generate improvements in public safety.

Authors

• Aaron Chalfin, University of Cincinnati

• Steve Raphael, University of California, Berkeley