POLSAFE: Can Police Presence Decrease Perceived Safety?
Navn på bevillingshaver
Jesper Asring Hansen
Titel
Associate Professor
Institution
Aalborg University
Beløb
DKK 6,969,891
År
2025
Bevillingstype
Semper Ardens: Accelerate
Hvad?
POLSAFE examines how changes in police presence – such as opening or closing local police stations – shape people’s feelings of safety and trust. We compare effects for ethnic majority and minority citizens across countries to learn who feels more secure, and who may feel less safe, when the police move further or closer away.
Hvorfor?
Crime has been on a declining trend throughout the last 30 years, yet many people – especially minority groups – still feel unsafe. Feeling unsafe harms health, mobility, and citizen participation, and can fuel polarization. Policymakers open police stations to reassure citizens, but theory suggests this may backfire in some communities. POLSAFE tests these competing claims.
Hvordan?
POLSAFE combines geocoded data on station openings and closures with large-scale surveys in five countries. A Swedish reform provides the venue to study the consequences of station closures, while new surveys in four countries offer the opportunity to study the changes while they occur. Novel econometric methods help in identifying effects of station closures and openings.