2024-03-28T21:49:35
114670
Thu Mar 28 21:49:36 EDT 2024
Replication data for: Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime
Vincenzo Bove
Evelina Gavrilova
114670
https://doi.org/10.3886/E114670V1
Sparked by high-profile confrontations between police and citizens in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere, many commentators have criticized the excessive militarization of law enforcement. We investigate whether surplus military-grade equipment acquired by local police departments from the Pentagon has an effect on crime rates. We use temporal variations in US military expenditure and between-counties variation in the odds of receiving a positive amount of military aid to identify the causal effect of militarized policing on crime. We find that (i) military aid reduces street-level crime; (ii) the program is cost-effective; and (iii) there is evidence in favor of a deterrence mechanism.
H56 National Security and War
H76 State and Local Government: Other Expenditure Categories
K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law