CJB225

Author Joanna JJ Wang, Don Weatherburn and Wai-Yin Wan
Published November 2019
Report Type Crime and Justice Bulletin No. 225
Subject Assault; Statistical methods and modelling; Vandalism and property damage; Evaluation reports
Keywords Police activity, violent crime, property crime, panel cointegration, pooled mean group estimator

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Summary

Aim

To examine the long-term effect of two routine police activities on property and violent crime in NSW.

Method

Police move-on directions and person searches as well as property and violent crimes were extracted from the NSW Police Force’s Computerised Operational Policing System. We investigate the relationship between police activity and crime using panel of 17 Local Area Commands (LACs) over the period 2001 to 2013. To estimate the long-run relationship, panel models of Pooled Mean Group and Mean Group were applied to allow for differing effects between LACs.

Results

We estimated a significant and strongly negative long-run relationship between both indices of police activity (move-on directions and person searches) and each of break and enter, motor vehicle theft and robbery. The person search activity is negatively related to assault, but the effect is weak; with a 10 per cent increase in person searches only producing a 0.29 per cent fall in assaults. No significant long-run relationship was found between assault and move-on directions.

Conclusion

Sustained increases in police activity, whether in the form of move-on directions or person searches, do appear to help suppress break and enter, motor vehicle theft and robbery but do not appear to help in reducing assault.

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