Willingness to Pay for Police Reform

Abstract

Consent decrees, authorized by Section 14141 of the 1994 Violent Crime Control Act, represent one of the most powerful governmental tools used to encourage—and possibly force—police reform. The consent decree process, however, carries a significant fiscal burden; in some cases, the cost of police reform inhibits agencies’ cooperation with the decrees. One possible solution to this problem calls for the creation of a public-supported police reform fund, whose monies are reserved strictly for consent decrees. Guided by focal concerns theory, this study reports on a factorial survey experiment used to assess variation across individuals’ willingness to pay for police reform. Results indicate that the seriousness of a police reform issue and the agency’s ability to pay for reform act as significant drivers of endorsement of a police reform fund.

Black Lives Matter, Protest Policing, and Voter Support for Police Reform in Portland, Oregon

“…To address the possible impact of socioeconomic status on voter support for police reform, we included two predictors: Education (1 = high school or less, 4 = post-grad or professional school) and Income (1 = less than $50,000, 5 = $150,000 or more). 5 Prior studies have also shown that political views are associated with perceptions of the police and support for police reform (Powell & Worrall, 2021;Tyler & Jackson, 2014). Following previous research (Burton et al, 2021;Metcalfe & Pickett, 2022), we measured political views by combining political party registration and selfidentified political ideology.…”

Reforming the Police: Examining the Effect of Message Framing on Police Reform Policy Preferences

“…Results showed that, on average, Portland residents intended to vote for the measure. Rather than assess voting behavior, Powell and Worrall (2021) measured how much respondents were willing to pay in taxes to fund police reform. Results showed that approximately 87% of the sample was willing to pay any amount and 57% was willing to pay at least $50 to fund police reform.…”

“…In a related line of inquiry, Powell and Worrall (2021) used a factorial vignette survey to evaluate factors that can increase an individual's willingness to fund police reform. Participants were randomly assigned to various conditions that manipulated the seriousness of departmental misconduct, the department's awareness of the issue, and its ability to address the misconduct.…”

“…Building on previous relevant public opinion research (e.g., Graham et al, 2019;Powell & Worrall, 2021;Sousa et al, 2017;Weitzer & Tuch, 2004), the current study answers three questions:…”

“…After indicating support or opposition toward police reform policies, participants were informed that part of implementing police reforms is making budget decisions and, as such, were asked to allocate funds for a city budget. While Powell and Worrall (2021) assessed public willingness to fund police reform, their study did not allow participants to divest from police. One consequence of the study's design was that the findings suggested that the public prefers reforming police by investing more into law enforcement without considering public support for divestment.…”