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  3. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
  4. August 2017
  5. Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime

Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime

  • Vincenzo Bove
  • Evelina Gavrilova
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 9, no. 3, August 2017
(pp. 1-18)
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Abstract

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.

Citation

Bove, Vincenzo, and Evelina Gavrilova. 2017. "Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 9 (3): 1-18. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150478

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H56 National Security and War
  • H76 State and Local Government: Other Expenditure Categories
  • K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
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