PRG Resources
PRG members have been involved in research projects that include a wealth of data that could be useful resources for students.
From Dr. Stephen Mastrofski:
Richmond Community Policing Observational Study. This project was conducted in 1992 in Richmond, VA. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, this project focused on systematic social observation of police officers in a department engaged in implementing community policing. Over 1,000 police-citizen encounters were observed, generating detailed quantitative data and narrative accounts of who was involved and what transpired. This was a pilot project for the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (see below). People interested in understanding and explaining how police exercise discretion will find these data useful.
Project on Policing Neighborhoods. This is project was conducted 1996-1997 in two communities implementing community policing (Indianapolis and St. Petersburg). Funded by the National Institute of Justice, this study involved a wide range of data collection: systematic social observation of patrol officers and patrol supervisors serving 12 neighborhoods in each city, surveys of patrol officers and supervisors, surveys of a random sample of neighborhood residents, in-depth interviews with police and community leaders, data from agency records. More than 7,000 hours of systematic observation generated large quantities of detailed quantitative data and qualitative accounts of how police and citizens interacted. These data can be linked to the citizen surveys at the neighborhood level. People interested in understanding and explaining how police exercise discretion and the consequences of police practices for citizen perceptions and attitudes will find these data useful.
Trinidad and TobagoModel Stations Community Surveys. This project was conducted 2007-2010 in 10 of the nation’s 77 district stations, using a pretest-posttest comparison group quasi-experimental design. The survey’s purpose was to measure the impact of organizational reforms on the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of residents in station districts served by police who had received special resources, training, and other technical support to implement a new style of service-oriented, “policing for people.” Four waves of surveys were conducted, yielding a total sample of approximately 12,000 respondents.
From Dr. David Weisburd:
Compstat and Organizational Change in the United States, 1999-2001. The purpose of the study was to determine how Compstat programs were being implemented across the United States by examining the diffusion of Compstat and factors associated with its implementation. Another goal of the study was to assess the impact of Compstat on line or patrol officers at the bottom of the police organization. The researchers administered a national survey on Compstat and problem solving in police agencies (Part 1) by mail to all 515 American police agencies with over 100 sworn police officers, and to a random sample of 100 agencies with between 50 and 100 sworn officers. The researchers received a total of 530 completed surveys (Part 1) between June 1999 and April 2000. The researchers distributed an anonymous, voluntary, and self-administered survey (Part 2) between December 2000 and May 2001 to a total of 450 patrol officers at three police departments (description from ICPSR).
Exploring Developmental Patterns of Crime at Place: What contributes to variations of crime patterns across micro-places? The existence of concentrations of crime events across both space and time has been empirically demonstrated and exists even as the geographic scale of analysis changes. However, the specific factors associated with this variation across places are less well-known. This study draws from both opportunity theory and social disorganization to examine the factors associated with micro level crime rates across both space and time. The spatio-temporal variation of a variety of environmental, social, and economic factors is analyzed. Specifically, the research describes micro level variation among the individual street blocks in Seattle, Washington over a 16 year time period.