A Decade's Change in Southern and Western Cities (From Minority Group Threat, Crime, and Policing: Social Context and Social Control, P (101)-114, 1989, Pamela Irving Jackson -- NCJ-119389)

• NCJ Number: 119392
• Author(s): P I Jackson
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Praeger Publishers
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The cities reviewed in this chapter -- Albuquerque, N.M.; Denver, Colo.; San Francisco, Calif.; Atlanta, Ga.; and Miami, Fla. -- illustrate the importance of regional context and minority population size on collective commitment to policing and police-community relations.

Abstract

Miami reflected the tensions and biases of the South in the continued focus on problems of black-white relations despite the fact that by the end of the 1970's over 50 percent of the city's population was Hispanic. In Albuquerque, with 34 percent Hispanic and 2 percent black, police spending remained considerably higher than expected in 1978, despite the end of Federal funding for police capital needs and the national urban trend toward lower levels of police spending. In Denver (12 percent black and 19 percent Hispanic) police spending for capital items increased enormously during the decade, as did police spending overall. Atlanta, a majority black Southern city in 1978, spent about one-third less on capital police items in 1978 than it did early in the decade, and its police expenditures overall were under the expected level. In San Francisco police spending remained under expected levels throughout the decade, reflecting the focus on community relations skills and on minority hiring. 5 tables.