Effects on calls for service of police ‘scarecrow’ cars

Abstract

ABSTRACT Stationary patrol vehicles, also known as ‘scarecrow cars,’ have been linked with reductions in speeding, but little is known about their effects on crime and related measures. In response to this limitation, we examined the effect on daily dispatched calls for service of a 32-day scarecrow car deployment in a large retail parking lot in Mesquite, Texas. Estimated with 180 days of pre and post data, interrupted time series and Poisson regression models revealed, as expected, that there was a significant decrease in dispatched calls during deployment followed by an increase post-deployment. Limitations and implications are discussed.