Policing and public health calls for service in Philadelphia

Ratcliffe, Jerry H.

doi:10.1186/s40163-021-00141-0

Cited by 38 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Accordingly, we might have missed a small number of DV incidents as we constructed our time‐series data set. Some false positives may have also found their way into our data, as prior work demonstrates that many 911 calls are ultimately unfounded or determined upon officer arrival to be a problem other than what was originally reported (Ratcliffe, 2021 ; Sorenson, 2017 ). This just underscores the importance of seeking out alternative sources of data on DV help‐seeking, like the emergency hotline data analyzed here (see also Sorenson et al., 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Comparing 911 and emergency hotline calls for domestic violence in seven cities: What happened when people started staying home due to COVID‐19?

Richards

Nix

Mourtgos

et al. 2021

Criminology & Public Policy

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Research Summary : We examine changes in help‐seeking for domestic violence (DV) in seven U.S. cities during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using Bayesian structural time‐series modeling with daily data to construct a synthetic counterfactual, we test whether calls to police and/or emergency hotlines varied in 2020 as people stayed home due to COVID‐19. Across this sample, we estimate there were approximately 1030 more calls to police and 1671 more calls to emergency hotlines than would have occurred absent the pandemic. Policy Implications : Interagency data sharing and analysis holds great promise for better understanding localized trends in DV in real time. Research‐practitioner partnerships can help DV coordinated community response teams (CCRTs) develop accessible and sustainable dashboards to visualize data and advance community transparency. As calls for drastic changes in policing are realized, prioritization of finite resources will become critical. Data‐driven decision‐making by CCRTs provides an opportunity to work within resource constraints without compromising the safety of DV victims.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Comparing 911 and emergency hotline calls for domestic violence in seven cities: What happened when people started staying home due to COVID‐19?

Richards

Nix

Mourtgos

et al. 2021

Criminology & Public Policy

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“…Doing so can possibly mitigate or eliminate the need for police involvement later on, as was the case here. If a response is required, however, and in-light of increasing calls for civilian-based responses (Watson et al, 2021 ), recent research warns us that calls for service which are initially reported as involving PwPMI may in fact encompass other components that would require a police response (Lum et al, 2021 ; Ratcliffe, 2021 ). Future work is therefore needed as to how the police can safely and appropriately triage PwPMI calls with their local mental health partners, and particularly so during public health emergencies which can lead to an increase in such calls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health calls for police service

Koziarski

2021

Crime Sci

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Drawing upon seven years of police calls for service data (2014–2020), this study examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on calls involving persons with perceived mental illness (PwPMI) using a Bayesian Structural Time Series. The findings revealed that PwPMI calls did not increase immediately after the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Instead, a sustained increase in PwPMI calls was identified in August 2020 that later became statistically significant in October 2020. Ultimately, the analysis revealed a 22% increase in PwPMI calls during the COVID-19 pandemic than would have been expected had the pandemic not taken place. The delayed effect of the pandemic on such calls points to a need for policymakers to prioritize widely accessible mental health care that can be deployed early during public health emergencies thus potentially mitigating or eliminating the need for increased police intervention, as was the case here.

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“…Despite what is portrayed in movies and on television, these 911 calls are rarely for serious violent crimes in progress (Ratcliffe, 2016(Ratcliffe, , 2021. 3 For calls that are serious, many are for crimes that have already occurred and in which the perpetrator is gone (Spelman & Brown, 1981).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can We Really Defund the Police? A Nine-Agency Study of Police Response to Calls for Service

2021

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The protests following the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 led to contentious discussions and debates in many cities about policing, with some calling to “defund the police.” However, this debate has generally proceeded without adequate research about either the scale or nature of issues that the police handle and the potential consequences of the proposed reform efforts. To respond to this research gap, we analyze millions of 911 calls for service across nine U.S. agencies. We report on the types of calls for service that the police handle, including how frequently different calls arise, how much time agencies spend on different categories of calls, and the outcomes of those calls. We find that the amount and types of incidents for which people call the police are voluminous, with the vast majority not obviously transferable to other organizations or government sectors without significant resource expenditures or adjustments. However, if the police retain these responsibilities, they also need to reconsider how they can more effectively address community concerns.

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Policing and public health calls for service in Philadelphia

Cited by 38 publications

References 7 publications

Comparing 911 and emergency hotline calls for domestic violence in seven cities: What happened when people started staying home due to COVID‐19?

Comparing 911 and emergency hotline calls for domestic violence in seven cities: What happened when people started staying home due to COVID‐19?

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health calls for police service

Can We Really Defund the Police? A Nine-Agency Study of Police Response to Calls for Service

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