The DOI matches its Crossref record; 32 of the 33 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Effects of Local Police Surges on Crime and Arrests in New York City
Open accessAbstract
The New York Police Department (NYPD) under Operation Impact deployed extra police officers to high crime areas designated as impact zones. Officers were encouraged to conduct investigative stops in these areas. City officials credited the program as one of the leading causes of New York City's low crime rate. We tested the effects of Operation Impact on reported crimes and arrests from 2004 to 2012 using a difference-in-differences approach. We used Poisson regression models to compare differences in crime and arrest counts before and after census block groups were designated as impact zones compared to census block groups in the same NYPD precincts but outside impact zones. Impact zones were significantly associated with reductions in total reported crimes, assaults, burglaries, drug violations, misdemeanor crimes, felony property crimes, robberies, and felony violent crimes. Impact zones were significantly associated with increases in total reported arrests, arrests for burglary, arrests for weapons, arrests for misdemeanor crimes, and arrests for property felony crimes. Impact zones were also significantly associated with increases in investigative stops for suspected crimes, but only the increase in stops made based on probable cause indicators of criminal behaviors were associated with crime reductions. The largest increase in investigative stops in impact zones was based on indicators of suspicious behavior that had no measurable effect on crime. The findings suggest that saturating high crime blocks with police helped reduce crime in New York City, but that the bulk of the investigative stops did not play an important role in the crime reductions. The findings indicate that crime reduction can be achieved with more focused investigative stops.
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“Although there is evidence that these NYPD strategies were associated with modest crime control gains (MacDonald et al., 2016;Weisburd et al., 2016), numerous studies suggested that these policing efforts generated racially disparate impacts on police stops and arrests of Black and Hispanic residents (e.g., Fagan & Davies, 2000;Gelman et al., 2007;Jones-Brown et al., 2010).”
From Police reform in public housing contexts: Body‐worn cameras, surveillance, and harm reduction in New York City Housing Authority Developments (2024) · cites this paper as MacDonald et al., 2016
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Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 33 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- A Chalfin, 2013, Are US Cities Under-Policed? Theory and Evidence, NBER Working Paper, 18815
- D Weisburd, 2015, Do Stop, Question, and Frisk Practices Deter Crime?, Criminology & Public Policy
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Metadata
- Authors
- MacDonald, J., Fagan, J., & Geller, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- MacDonald, John
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2016-06-16
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e0157223
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4911104
- OpenAlex
- W2177794968
- Cited by
- 145
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 10
- FWCI
- 60.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- bepress Legal Repository (submittedVersion)
- eYLS (Yale Law School) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- impact zone, New York City Police Department, crime reduction, arrests, investigative stops, police presence, high-crime neighborhoods, violent crime, property crime, New York City
- MeSH terms
- Workforce, Firesetting Behavior, Homicide, Humans, New York City, Theft, Violence, Models, Statistical, Police, Law Enforcement, Drug Trafficking
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