Turnover in large US policing agencies following the George Floyd protests

Ian T. Adams, Scott M. Mourtgos and Justin Nix

Journal of Criminal Justice, 2023, vol. 88, issue C

Abstract: We examine whether police resignations and retirements significantly changed in the two years following public backlash related to the police murder of George Floyd. We employ Bayesian Structural Time Series to compare observed trends in each agency to synthetic counterfactuals using monthly staffing data from fourteen large municipal policing and sheriffs' agencies in the US. In the two years since the Floyd protests began, large metropolitan agencies have experienced significant increases in resignations, retirements, or both. One agency was unaffected, two saw small improvements, and eleven saw between 2.2% and 16% excess loss of sworn full-time personnel when compared to the synthetic counterfactual. These results reaffirm the importance of understanding how agency operational and personnel patterns have shifted since the summer of 2020.

Keywords: Retention; George Floyd; Protests; Bayesian structural time series; Police staffing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:88:y:2023:i:c:s0047235223000764

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2023.102105

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