Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

BACKGROUND. Police-community relations are strained in the U.S., especially along racial lines. The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing has called for more police-community partnerships to address this issue; however, questions remain about whether these efforts can make a difference in locations with long-standing racial tension--especially in the Deep South. These questions are particularly important with respect to drug law enforcement since traditional efforts to close down drug markets can exacerbate the racial tensions between police and community members.  Crackdowns involving raids and group arrests may take some drug dealers off the streets, but in most cases they are easily replaced.  These efforts tend to help shape narratives where the community believes the police are unfairly targeting black neighborhoods (and are perhaps part of a conspiracy to keep drugs in these communities), and the police (often majority white) feel the community is not doing its part (and often withholding information) to help fight the drug activity.

INTERVENTION. The Drug Market Intervention (DMI) was designed in response to criticism regarding aggressive police tactics that were seen as unfair and racially motivated. The program seeks to disrupt and ultimately close overt drug markets through a police-community collaboration that incarcerates violent drug dealers and leverages the criminal justice system’s deterrence power against non-violent drug dealers.  This paper assesses community perceptions of crime and the police before and after the implementation of a DMI in a small, racially-segregated city (population ~8,000) in the southern United States.

DATA. Mail surveys were sent to every household in the city living within a two-mile radius of the block group that includes the targeted drug market (N=2,729 households) in two waves: Wave I: November 11, 2011-January 5, 2012; and Wave II: November 5, 2012-January 10, 2013.  The instructions specified that the adult aged 18 or over who had the most recent birthday should complete the questionnaire.  For each wave, the survey came with a $2 bill and those who responded were sent $10 upon completion. 

METHODS. To assess the effect of DMI on perceptions of crime and the police, we utilize a differences-in-differences approach which tests whether the DMI had a unique effect on a subset of city residents.  The obvious subpopulation of interest is those who live in the neighborhood where the intervention took place. We also consider two other differences-in-differences models: One broadens the definition of the treatment area and another focuses on the specific effect of the DMI on black respondents.  Results from triple-difference models will also be considered.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS. We find that relative to non-black respondents, black respondents perceived less crime and less racial profiling after the intervention; however, there appeared to be no change with respect to perceptions of police efficacy, fairness, and legitimacy. The overall findings are consistent with the notion that perceived crime reduction does not have to come at the expense of straining police-community relations.