Residency Requirements and Public Perceptions of the Police in Large Municipalities

• NCJ Number: 179049
• Journal: Policing Volume: 22 Issue: 3 Dated: 1999 Pages: 327-342
• Author(s): David W. Murphy; John L. Worrall
• Editor(s): Lawrence F Travis III
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 16 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 1998.

Annotation

This study explored the relationship between police residency requirements at the municipal level and citizen confidence in the abilities of the police to prevent crime, solve crimes, and protect citizens.

Abstract

Data for the study were obtained from a national survey of citizen satisfaction with criminal justice institutions conducted during 1995 and from the 1993 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey of agencies with more than 100 sworn officers. In order to merge both data sets, zip code information was obtained for the Crime Poll survey respondents. Each respondent's zip code was then entered into the zip code locator on the U.S. Post Office's web site. This provided the names of the cities in which each crime poll respondent resided. This permitted the cross-referencing of the public survey data with the LEMAS data set, which lists police agencies by city, including whether or not residency requirements are in place. The findings show that residency requirements have a negative impact on citizen's confidence in the ability of the police to protect them. Because the residency-requirement variable included officers who resided within the municipality, the county, or some other venue (other than the State generally), it is possible that the critics of residency requirements are correct in arguing that such a requirement limits hiring pools, thus leading to poor personnel choices and a less qualified officer corps. The research further showed that citizens with household incomes of $60,000 or more tended to have less confidence in the ability of the police to protect them, perhaps because they have a relatively higher need for additional police protection. Also, African-Americans, as well as citizens who have experienced prior contacts with the police, had less confidence in the ability of the police to protect them. 2 tables, 7 notes, and 40 references