Journey-to-raids: Distance Decay and Prohibition Enforcement

• In Event: Police Decision-making Considerations For Enforcement Behaviors

Abstract

Police during Prohibition faced a lot of criticism over inequitable enforcement of liquor laws. They were accused of targeting saloons where poorer individuals drank while allowing the wealthy to consume alcohol through legal loopholes, and of selective Prohibition enforcement only in certain neighborhoods. Empirical research on the journey-to-crime for offenders and delinquents has uncovered distance decay dynamics. These same dynamics might apply to police officers’ journeys to raids or street stops in response to Prohibition violations. Addresses of over one hundred Philadelphia liquor enforcement actions were taken from February 1924 newspapers, The Evening Bulletin, and locations of police district stations came from an annual almanac by the same publishers. A near analysis table generated by ArcGIS with spatial joins matched raids to the appropriate police district station. Raids or street stops for Prohibition enforcement proved less likely farther from the respective station. Most liquor enforcement actions occurred within one mile of the respective station, and average enforcement distances varied by district. Because many of these Prohibition actions were often not responses to calls for service but proactive, this may have important implications for the geography of justice.

Author

• Chelsey Donohoe, Temple University