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Do traffic stops reduce calls for police help?

The abstract of this recent paper offers up a suggestion with potential public safety implications:Using data from the Police?Public Contact Survey (PPCS), the current study examined how experiencing traffic stops affect the likelihood that Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics will contact the police for services. First, experiencing one or more traffic stops in the past year significantly decreased the likelihood of contacting the police for assistance and to report a neighborhood problem, net of other demographic characteristics. Second, traffic stop experiences had similar effects on Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics, each group less likely to have contacted the police for assistance and to report neighborhood problems if they had experienced one or more traffic stops in the past year...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 11, 2010 (boomark / email).