More police on the streets

Less bureaucracy and more officers on the street. That is the wish of the Dutch cabinet. Sounds good, but will more officers on the streets mean less crime? Ben Vollaard, crime economist at Tilburg University, looks closer into this issue.

Vollaard focused on a question if for some period of time a number of policemen is missing, does it influence the crime rate? According to Vollaard, more blue uniforms indeed result in less crime. There even seems to be a one on one relationship: if one percent more policemen patrol the streets, it can reduce crime even by one percent.

However, the effect is in fact very local. It is not yet clear if increasing the number of policemen would be so effective at any time and any place. “That shows that we are still not sure how it works,” says Vollaard to the NRC.

Yet more police on the streets is not necessarily the best solution to crime. “Hiring more officers is a very large investment that you cannot just reverse. You can also look at how to remove the incentives to crime.” Anti-theft locks and blockades in cars, for example, would reduce the burglary by 25% and auto theft rate by 60%. And that is a result the police cannot beat.