Patterns in the supply and demand of urban policing at the street segment level
Policing plays a critical role in crime prevention, incorporating both deterrent and responsive activities. Since many policing activities require the physical presence of officers, a crucial issue for police effectiveness concerns the extent to which officers are located where they are needed. Oper...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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[2020]
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| In: |
Policing and society
Year: 2020, Volume: 30, Issue: 7, Pages: 795-817 |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Summary: | Policing plays a critical role in crime prevention, incorporating both deterrent and responsive activities. Since many policing activities require the physical presence of officers, a crucial issue for police effectiveness concerns the extent to which officers are located where they are needed. Operationally, this can be framed as a ‘supply and demand’ issue, where the aim is to match the supply of police resource to the demand for service. In this paper, we examine this issue for a five-month period in London, UK, using police vehicle tracking data and call-for-service records. We examine the extent to which supply and demand are aligned at the street segment level and build a statistical model which seeks to explain the disparity between the two quantities in terms of network structure. We find that police activity is distributed unevenly, with over-supply on more central streets, and discuss the implications of this for police practice. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-2728 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/10439463.2019.1598997 |