Police Protection and Changes in Urban Population

Abstract

Ogburn (1937) reported that the number of police officers in major cities expressed as a proportion of the population was greater in those cities whose populations were decreasing than in those whose populations were increasing. In order to explore whether the same phenomenon was currently in evidence, data on cities in the USA in 1970 with a population of 250,000 or more were examined. Data on the number of police officers in the cities in 1970 were obtained from the Uniform Gime Reports, as was the crime index (which was expressed as a rate per unit population). Data on the population of the cities in 1960 and 1970 were obtained from the United States Statistical Abstract. Cities with increasing populations had a smaller ratio of police officers/ population than cities with a decreasing population (on a median test x2 = 9.06, df = 1, p < 0.01; respective medians of 1.7 and 3.2 police officers per 1,000 people). The two groups of cities did not differ in population (x2 = 0.07, df = 1). However, cities with increasing populations did have significantly higher crime indexes than cities with decreasing populations (x2 = 6.06, df = 1, p < 0.02) for 1975, but not for 1970 (x2 = 0.67 ) .l This suggests an important problem. Cities with increasing populations are typically going to confronr a greater crime problem, yet have proportionately fewer police officers to deal with this problem. REFERENCE