Scale Economies and Police Department Consolidation: Evidence From Los Angeles

Finney, Miles

doi:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1997.tb00459.x

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Several early studies (Chapman, Hirsch, & Sonenblum, 1975;Skogan, 1976) claimed to have discovered economies of scale in policing. Other studies have failed to find economies of scale or have even found diseconomies of scale (Finney, 1997;Gyimah-Brempong, 1989;Gyapong & Gyimah-Brempong, 1988;Ostrom & Parks, 1973;Staley, 2005;Walzer, 1972). Ostrom (1975Ostrom ( , 2000 and Staley (2005) have suggested that such analyses should be specific to various police functions.…”

Section: National Recommendations For Consolidationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Municipal Contracting With County Sheriffs for Police Services in California: Comparison of Cost and Effectiveness

Nelligan

Bourns

2011

Police Quarterly

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Rather than having a traditional, municipal police department nearly 30%of the 478 cities in California contract with their county sheriff for police services. The usual rationale is that contracting with the sheriff costs less than establishing and operating a city police department. This research investigates this issue by analyzing expenditure, crime, and other relevant data covering the 5-year period 2001-2005. It poses and answers the following questions: (1) Are the cities that contract (contract cities) similar to the cities that have their own police departments (department cities) on a range of characteristics that may affect the cost of policing? (2) Do statewide data show the claimed cost differential? (3) Are there differences in comparative costs between or within regions and counties in the state? and (4) Does contracting cost less because of less effective policing as measured by percentages of violent and property crimes cleared? Contract cities are newer, less populous, less dense, wealthier, have less business activity, have lower numbers and rates of reported crime, and have fewer arrests. It is suggested that there is less police work in the contract cities, and that may affect cost. Mean annual per capita police expenditures are much lower in the contract cities statewide, in both the northern and southern regions, and in three of the four southern California counties where contracting is most prevalent. Finally, contract cities have on average significantly higher clearance rates for violent crimes than department cities (especially in Los Angeles County) and the same clearance rates for property crimes. It does not appear that contract at NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV on May 16, 2015 pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Nelligan and Bourns 71 cities are paying less because they are getting lower quality police service, at least as measured by crime clearances. Suggestions are made for further research on the contracting phenomenon.

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Section: National Recommendations For Consolidationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Municipal Contracting With County Sheriffs for Police Services in California: Comparison of Cost and Effectiveness

Nelligan

Bourns

2011

Police Quarterly

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“…Whilst there is extensive literature on benchmarking applied to a diverse range of economic fields, the scarcity of literature with regard to police forces is a testimony to the fact that this is a relatively underresearched topic. In relation to the papers that analyse police forces without frontier models, I cite, first, Finney (1997) who analyses the efficiency of Los Angeles Police Force Departments with a translog cost function, finding decreasing returns to scale. Second, I cite Darrough and Heineke (1979) who analysed the efficiency of 30 police forces in medium-size cities in the (1987a, 1987b, 1989) who analysed municipal police forces in Florida with a translog function.…”

Section: Literature Survey On Police Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results from such research are mixed, with some authors finding that police forces have decreasing returns to scale (Finney, 1997;Gyapong & Gymah-Brempong, 1988a, 1988b, but others finding increasing returns to scale (Chapman, Hirsch, & Sonnenblum, 1975). Table 3 presents the research on police forces using frontier models.…”

Section: Literature Survey On Police Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

The City and the Police Force: Analysing Relative Efficiency in City Police Precincts with Data Envelopment Analysis

Barros

2007

International Journal of Police Science & Management

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This paper analyses the efficiency of the Lisbon police force precincts with a 2-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA). In the first stage, we estimate the DEA efficiency scores and compare the precincts with each other. The aim of this procedure is to seek out those best practices that will lead to the improved performance of all of the precincts. We rank the precincts according to their efficiency for the period 2000-2002. In the second stage, we estimate a Tobit model in which the efficiency scores are regressed in socio-economic issues, identifying social causes which vary across the city and that affect deterrence policy. The economic implications arising from the study are considered.

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“…In 1992, residents in the city of West Hollywood in Los Angeles County voted on a referendum to create a city police force and eliminate its contract with the county sheriffs department. A number of recent studies have found that police output is produced under returns to scale that are continuously decreasing (Gyimah-Brempong, 1986, 1987, 1989Finney, 1997). Finney (1997) estimates decreasing returns specifically for Los Angeles municipalities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of recent studies have found that police output is produced under returns to scale that are continuously decreasing (Gyimah-Brempong, 1986, 1987, 1989Finney, 1997). Finney (1997) estimates decreasing returns specifically for Los Angeles municipalities. These returns to scale findings suggest that, holding output constant, the cost *The author thanks anonymous three referees for helpful comments as well as Hong-lie Qiu for invaluable computer mapping assistance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constituency Preference and Police Consolidation: The Case of West Hollywood

Finney

1999

Contemporary Economic Policy

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"This study estimates the determinants of voter behavior in a local referendum on contracting for municipal police services. Recent empirical research has found that police services are produced under decreasing returns to scale. The electorate in West Hollywood, California decided in 1992 to maintain its police contractual agreement with the larger county police department. This paper finds that economic costs/benefits were significant determinants of the voters' decisions, suggesting that the electorate's expectations on the relative costs of the alternative police regimes contradict the efficiency implications of recent empirical research." ("JEL" H31, H77) Copyright 1999 Western Economic Association International.

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Scale Economies and Police Department Consolidation: Evidence From Los Angeles

Cited by 20 publications

References 13 publications

Municipal Contracting With County Sheriffs for Police Services in California: Comparison of Cost and Effectiveness

Municipal Contracting With County Sheriffs for Police Services in California: Comparison of Cost and Effectiveness

The City and the Police Force: Analysing Relative Efficiency in City Police Precincts with Data Envelopment Analysis

Constituency Preference and Police Consolidation: The Case of West Hollywood

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