Analysing the role of police officer strength in the crime drop in England

Tura, F, Hunter, J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5501-6718, Thompson, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4220-3730 and Tseloni, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6443-7012, 2023. Analysing the role of police officer strength in the crime drop in England. Policing: a Journal of Policy and Practice, 17. ISSN 1752-4512

Text 2285095_Tseloni.pdf - Post-print Full-text access embargoed until 29 November 2025. Download (384kB)

Abstract

According to evidence from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), there have been significant falls in crime levels in England and Wales since the 1990s. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain these falls. However, there is scarce research on the role of the number of police officers in bringing about the crime drop in the UK. We fitted multilevel models to analyse the role of the number of police officers in the crime drop in England between 1991 and 2001 using a variety of data sources, including police recorded crime data, UK Census data, and police workforce data. We found that the role of police officer strength in the crime drop in England was limited to vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicle, and thefts from person. Given the relatively mixed picture, we recommend that police forces should focus on what newly recruited police officers do and where they are deployed, as opposed to becoming too focussed on the number of officers. More implications of the findings in relation to the recent Police Uplift Programme are discussed.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Policing: a Journal of Policy and Practice
Creators:	Tura, F., Hunter, J., Thompson, R. and Tseloni, A.
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date:	2023
Volume:	17
ISSN:	1752-4512
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1093/police/paad079 DOI 2285095 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	20 Nov 2024 16:17
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2024 16:17
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52628

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads