NCJ Number
246476
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2014 Pages: 260-280
Date Published
March 2014
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article presents the results of a study examining "user pay" policing in Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
Noting the lack of research on "users pay" form of police moonlighting (pay duty) in Ontario, Canada, this study examined this form of policing in order to gain insight into major themes in theoretical accounts of public police services. The study found that the use of pay duty officers resulted in increased costs to municipalities and that oftentimes the jobs assigned to pay duty officers could have been performed by other workers at a lower cost. The study also found that officers were taking pay duty assignments but were violating the department's 24-hour duty rule and missing court dates, and that while pay duty officers increased "police visibility," they did so in ways that were not flattering to the department. These findings suggest that while pay duty policing is important to police marketization efforts, further research needs to be done to determine if this form of policing is an efficient use of public resources. Data for this study were obtained from four sources: interviews with police service personnel, freedom of information requests on pay duty logs assignment logs for a 1-year period from four Ontario police services, analysis of print media coverage regarding pay duty arrangements in these four metropolitan areas for the period 2000 through 2012, and unobtrusive observations of several pay duty sites in the four metropolitan areas. Implications for future research are discussed. Table and references