Determinants of police growth in Phoenix, 1950–1988

Local politics and police strength

“…Previous studies have generally relied on public choice, conflict, or organizational perspectives to explain variation in police employment across cities (Nalla et al, 1997), but paid limited attention to local political context. The arguments developed above suggest that variation in police strength across cities will be related to municipal political arrangements.…”

“…Despite disagreement over whether adding more police reduces crime, numerous studies have assessed variation in police strength (for overviews see Koper, Maguire, & Moore, 2001;Maguire, 2001;Sever, 2001). Most studies focus on public (rational) choice, conflict, and organizational perspectives (Nalla, Lynch, & Lieber, 1997), but few studies consider the local political context (e.g. Chandler & Gely, 1995;Sever, 2001;Trejo, 1991), which is somewhat surprising given that most police budgets are politically determined.…”

“…Nearly all studies of police strength rely on public choice, conflict, or organizational perspectives (Nalla et al, 1997). 1 The public choice perspective assumes that public demand influences governmental policies.…”

“…According to this perspective, changes in police employment are generally incremental increases or decreases from the previous year. Not surprisingly, studies find that the best predictor of current police strength is previous police strength (Brandl, Chamlin, & Frank, 1995;Chamlin & Langworthy, 1996;Nalla et al, 1997).…”

An Analysis of Factors Affecting the Implementation of Small Municipal Police Agencies: An Open-Systems Approach

“…An increase in crime would necessarily lead to an increase in citizen demand for police services, and result in more officers being hired and/or being stationed on the street (Nalla et al 1997). Public Choice theory emphasizes that citizen demand for increased law enforcement services is reflected in the resulting municipal expenditures for police.…”