Community Policing: A Preliminary Assessment of Environmental Impact With Panel Data on Program Implementation in U.S. Cities

Abstract

This article examines the environmental impact on the programmatic implementation of community-oriented policing (COP) in large municipal police agencies during the 1990s. Three waves of nationwide surveys (1993, 1996, and 2000) based on a random sample of 281 municipalities and the corresponding police agencies were used for our analysis. Based on one-way generalized least square (GLS) panel data analysis, we found that post-Crime Control Act of 1994federal funding and council-manager forms of government are significant predictors of COP implementation. To the contrary, other environmental factors such as personnel resources, city socioeconomic status, and mechanisms for citizen participation did not yield any statistically significant effects.