The Politics of Police Protection

In recent years, the “Defund the Police” movement has drawn attention to the harmful consequences of over-policing, especially for Black and Latino communities, where frequent and aggressive police presence has been linked to racial discrimination and state violence. Reformers argue that reducing the size and scope of police forces may help curb these harms. Yet for Black Americans—who are disproportionately both the targets of over-policing and the victims of violent crime—the consequences of police reductions are far from straightforward. 

The dissertation advances a novel theoretical framework arguing that police indirectly influence political behavior and attitudes through their effects on crime.  After all, violence — regardless of its origins — is a destructive force in people’s lives today.  The dual reality for Black Americans—experiencing both excessive policing and insufficient protection—creates distinctive political consequences that existing scholarship has largely overlooked. Thus, I argue that Black Americans are uniquely positioned to benefit from reductions in criminal violence—despite the harms associated with policing itself. 

The first essay demonstrates that increased police capacity narrows the Black-White voter turnout gap by boosting Black political participation, an effect driven by reductions in criminal violence rather than direct police interactions. Using a natural experiment based on federal police hiring grants, this study provides causal evidence for the politically empowering effects of crime reduction.

The second essay reveals how criminal victimization erodes the social and ideological foundations of political solidarity within Black communities. Through analysis of survey data, it shows that recent victimization weakens beliefs in linked fate and support for government interventions addressing racial inequality, while simultaneously increasing endorsement of individualistic explanations for racial disparities.

The third essay explores public attitudes toward expected changes in police force size through survey experiments. I find that Black Americans oppose reducing the size of their police force and that expected contractions in police force size lower interest in non-electoral participation. Still, Black Americans express some skepticism towards expanding police numbers.

Together, these essays contribute to multiple literatures in political science, including policy feedback theory, political behavior, and race and politics. My research demonstrates the importance of incorporating criminal violence into theories of political participation and highlights how policing as an institution can generate different political consequences across and within racial groups. By revealing the complex ways that public safety shapes democratic engagement, this work provides crucial insights for understanding contemporary debates over police reform and offers a more nuanced framework for analyzing the political effects of criminal justice institutions.