Patterns in the supply and demand of urban policing at the street segment level. (8th August 2020) - Davies, Toby
ABSTRACT: Policing plays a critical role in crime prevention, incorporating both deterrent and responsive activities. Since many policing activities require the physical presence of officers, a crucial issue for police effectiveness concerns the extent to which officers are located where they are needed. Operationally, this can be framed as a 'supply and demand' issue, where the aim is to match the supply of police resource to the demand for service. In this paper, we examine this issue for a five-month period in London, UK, using police vehicle tracking data and call-for-service records. We examine the extent to which supply and demand are aligned at the street segment level and build a statistical model which seeks to explain the disparity between the two quantities in terms of network structure. We find that police activity is distributed unevenly, with over-supply on more central streets, and discuss the implications of this for police practice.