Focus vs. spread: Police box consolidation and its impact on crime in Korea

• Published in: International review of law and economics Vol. 70; p. 106062
• Main Authors: Kang, Songman, Kim, Duol
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.06.2022
• Subjects: Crime; Police; Police organization; Police resource allocation; South Korea; R53; South Korea; H76; Crime; Police resource allocation; K42; Police organization; Police
• ISSN: 0144-8188; 1873-6394
• DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2022.106062

A 2003 police organization reform in South Korea led to the consolidation of many local police boxes into fewer but larger patrol stations. The expectation was that such consolidation would allow police to utilize its limited resources in a more flexible and efficient way. In this study, we investigate the impact of this reform on crime by exploiting the variation in the extent of police box consolidation across South Korea. Our estimation results indicate that the areas more strongly affected by the consolidation have experienced a notable increase in crime, especially sexual assault and assault. Moreover, we find evidence that the police box consolidation has had a disproportionately higher impact on crime in rural areas, where the distribution of police boxes was sparser than in urban areas. These findings suggest that varying allocations of police resources can have an important impact on crime, even without a significant change in the overall level of police resources. •We study the impact of a recent police organization reform in South Korea on local crime rates.•The reform led to the consolidation of many local police boxes into larger patrol stations.•We find a significant increase in crime in the areas more strongly affected by the consolidation.•This provides suggestive evidence that the reallocation of existing police resources may significantly increase or decrease crime rates.