Police service delivery and responsiveness in a period of economic instability

Abstract

The ongoing fiscal crisis has resulted in substantial challenges for many police departments, not only in terms of how administrators staff and manage operations, but with respect to how street-level officers go about handling their daily tasks. Using data collected as part of an observational study (i.e. the Flint Twenty-first Century Policing Project), the present inquiry assesses how street-level officers deliver service to the public and respond to citizen requests in a city experiencing substantial socioeconomic challenges. While concerns regarding the changing reality of policing have merit, the findings indicate that the basic nature of street-level policing, in terms of service delivery and responsiveness, can still be achieved with substantial success. The implications of these findings and potential future research avenues are discussed.