DRUG ENFORCEMENT AND THE DETERRENCE OF PROPERTY CRIME AMONG LOCAL JURISDICTIONS

This article investigates the relationships among property crime, poli ce resources, and the allocation of police resources in a model using data from Florida jurisdictions. Crime spillovers among local jurisdic tions are also investigated in this context. Significant spillovers ar e revealed, and the evidence suggests that allocating scarce police re sources to drug enforcement reduces the deterrence of property crime. The results also suggest that police may capture rents by increasing d rug enforcement. Increasing the relative number of drug arrests raises the property crime rate, and both of these variables are positively c orrelated with police resources.