| Summary: | This study represents one of four research projects on service delivery systems in metropolitan areas, covering fire protection (DECISION-RELATED RESEARCH ON THE ORGANIZATION OF SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEMS IN METROPOLITAN AREAS: FIRE PROTECTION [ICPSR 7409]), public health (DECISION-RELATED RESEARCH ON THE ORGANIZATION OF SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEMS IN METROPOLITAN AREAS: PUBLIC HEALTH [ICPSR 7374]), solid waste management (DECISION-RELATED RESEARCH ON THE ORGANIZATION OF SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEMS IN METROPOLITAN AREAS: SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT [ICPSR 7487]), and police protection (the present study). All four projects used a common unit of analysis, namely all 200 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) that, according to the 1970 Census, had a population of less than 1,500,000 and were entirely located within a single state. In each project, a limited amount of information was collected for all 200 SMSAs. More extensive data were gathered within independently drawn samples of these SMSAs, for all local geographical units and each administrative jurisdiction or agency in the service delivery areas. Two standardized systems of geocoding -- the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) codes and the Office of Revenue Sharing (ORS) codes -- were used, so that data from various sources could be combined. The use of these two coding schemes also allows users to combine data from two or more of the research projects conducted in conjunction with the present one, or to add data from a wide variety of public data files. The present study used five major clusters of variables to investigate the delivery of police services: service conditions, the legal structure, organizational arrangements, manpower levels, and expenditure levels. Information about specific services such as patrol, traffic control, criminal investigation, radio communications, adult pre-trial detention, entry-level training, and crime laboratory analysis was collected at the local jurisdiction level in a random sample of 80 SMSAs. Part 1 summarizes in matrix form the relationships between all consumers and producers for each type of service in a given SMSA. Part 2 provides data about 1,885 consuming units, or service areas, defined as mutually exclusive geographical divisions of each SMSA that received police services. Part 3 contains information for 1,761 police agencies, defined as service producers, with functions and duties that may overlap several jurisdictions.
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