Time to die: Police response times and lethality in New Orleans

• In Event: Measuring Police Performance and Impacts

Abstract

The lethality of aggravated assaults has long been discussed as a variable significantly affected by the response times of emergency medical services to the scene of the incident. However, the influence of police response times and the socio-demographic characteristics of the neighborhood in which assaults occurred have not been given adequate attention. This study explores the relationship between the lethality of shootings and police response times in New Orleans for calendar year 2014. In addition, routine activities and social disorganization variables are included in the models to detect temporal and spatial patterns in both response time and lethality. Limitations, policy implications, and future research directions are discussed.

Author

• Sarah Sacra, University of Central Florida