Citation

Jácome E. J. Urban Econ. 2022; 128: e103395.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jue.2021.103395

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Mistrust between immigrants and the police may undermine law enforcement's ability to keep communities safe. This paper documents that immigration policies affect an individual's willingness to report crime. I analyze the 2015 Priority Enforcement Program, which focused immigration enforcement on individuals convicted of serious crimes and shifted resources away from immigration-related offenses. I use data from the Dallas Police Department that include a complainant's ethnicity to show that the number of violent and property crimes reported to the police by Hispanics increased by 4 percent after the introduction of PEP. These results suggest that reducing enforcement of individuals who do not pose a threat to public safety can potentially improve trust between immigrant communities and the police.

Language: en

Keywords

Crime reporting; Immigration; Immigration policy; Police effectiveness