Pay to Protect? Evidence of Donor Bias in Chicago Police Stops

• In Event: Police Organization: Leaders and Organizational Practices

Abstract

Gift-giving from private organizations to public institutions is one of the most studied topics in the literature. Specifically, the literature has dedicated special attention to police donations and how they can influence the provision of public services performed by the police. Despite the attention donations to the police have received, to this date, there is little empirical evidence evaluating the effect of private donations on policing activities. In this project, we aim to empirically assess private donations on officer behavior. Leveraging a donation to the Chicago Police Foundation True Gala Event in 2017, we estimate the effect of private donations to police departments in police activity. In our study we show that after the 2017 7-Eleven donation police activity increased in blocks with 7-Elevens in comparison to other comparable blocks. Controlling for crime activity, our results show that around 7-Eleven locations, Chicago police increased pedestrian stops. While we observe an increase in all pedestrian stops, the effect size is significantly larger for Blacks, suggesting that the police response is not equally distributed among racial groups even after controlling for block's racial composition. Our results suggest that private donations affect the provision of police services benefiting donors at expenses of other groups.

Authors

• Angela Zorro Medina, University of Toronto

• David Hackett, University of Chicago

• Devin Green, University of Chicago

• Robert Vargas, University of Chicago