This piece from Governing seems relevant. Excerpts below.
Full article at http://www.governing.com/notebook/today.htm
The study is at http://mason.gmu.edu/~atabarro/TerrorAlertProofs.pdf
Delaying pension obligations is a legitimate investment if the returns
are substantial and improve the city's future. This study indicates
that the returns are 4 to 1. Of course it's just one study, and it does
indicate that murders didn't go down, but it does substantiate the
claim that more police = less crime, and less crime is a good thing
when we're trying to ride a wave of return to urban areas.
The Lesson of Terror Alerts
More Police=Less Crime?
This may sound like a dumb question, but if your city could put more
police officers on the street would it mean less crime? Most people
would quickly answer yes, but the evidence has been sketchy. And if
more cops really do mean fewer robbers, then how much less crime could
you expect from hiring one additional cop? Well, thanks to a pair of
enterprising academics, now we know. The researchers found that cops
are good investments for cities. How good? According to Jonathan M.
Klick, who teaches law and economics at Florida State, for every dollar
cities spend on additional police officers, the cost of crime goes down
by $4. “It wouldn’t be unreasonable,” Klick told the New York Times,
“based on our estimates and based on conservative estimates of the
costs of crime, to say it would be cost-effective to actually double
the number of people working in police forces, which is pretty amazing.”
Becca Vargo Daggett
Seward
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