Now You See Me, Now You Don't: The Geography of Police Stops
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 109,
May 2019
(pp. 143-47)
Abstract
This paper uses state police stop data in Texas to assess patrol activity. We find that both the types of stops and allocation of resources over space change in darkness relative to daylight, and that the changes in stop type and manpower allocation are correlated within police officers. We also find that the counties receiving more police resources in darkness have a higher share of minority residents. Veil of Darkness (VOD) tests of racial discrimination in traffic stops require that the distribution of motorists be independent of darkness, which is unlikely to be the case without detailed geographic controls.Citation
Kalinowski, Jesse J., Matthew B. Ross, and Stephen L. Ross. 2019. "Now You See Me, Now You Don't: The Geography of Police Stops." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109: 143-47. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20191026Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H76 State and Local Government: Other Expenditure Categories
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J45 Public Sector Labor Markets
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
- R12 Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity