Developing a robust resource allocation formulae for police

Abstract

With increasing decentralisation, the way in which central government resources are allocated between geographical areas for different services is of increasing importance. Procedures currently used by the English Home Office to allocate resources, based on regression analyses of data at the level of the Police Authorities, are flawed, because the variations between Authorities are more likely to be a reflection of historical variations in policies and practices than of the ‘need’ for policing. However, recent developments in the distribution of government finance, based on small area analysis, appear to be uniquely applicable to policing. As an illustration of the proposed approach, models are developed for Crime Reduction and Public Confidence objectives. A preliminary examination of data on the fear of crime from the 1996 British Crime Survey in a multi‐level modelling structure shows that there are a number of socio‐demographic variables which affect reported fear‐of‐crime; even for such an esoteric indicator, a formula could be developed.