Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments May 2, 2022 erstellt
Beschreibung:
This paper studies the effects of civilian complaint investigations on officer behavior in Chicago. We exploit quasi-random assignment of complaints to supervising investigators and use variation in whether supervisors tend to acquire sworn affidavits to substantiate the complaints. When the assigned investigator opens more investigations through obtaining affidavits, accused officers accumulate fewer complaints in the first three months of the investigation. We find that whether officers respond to complaints with reduced arrest effort changes following a scandal. Prior to the scandal, investigation causes officers to make more arrests, but this reverses after the scandal. Taken together, our findings suggest that police misconduct investigations can improve officer behavior in ordinary oversight environments but may backfire in heightened oversight environments