College
Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences
Date of Last Revision
2023-05-05 02:13:07
Major
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Honors Course
3850:397
Number of Credits
3
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Date of Expected Graduation
Fall 2021
Abstract
Police departments, like all public agencies, are limited by their budgets and may struggle to recruit and retain qualified officers. In policing, a majority of the budget is spend on salaries, pensions, and benefits. This is increasingly important to look because we have seen calls for defunding the police over the summer of 2020 and certain localities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City have made cuts to their police department. With a loss of budget, some departments had to downsize on specialized units, which played a role in an increase in crime rates. In the case of New York City, shooting incidents are up 100% while homicides are up 38% compared to the same time in 2019. However, some cities were forced to cut their police department’s budget from the economic crisis of the pandemic. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic, issues of de-policing, and recruitment and retention challenges were underlying issues that influenced changes in crimes rates in 2020.
Research Sponsor
Dr. David Licate
First Reader
Professor Sarah St. George
Second Reader
Professor Insun Park
Honors Faculty Advisor
Dr. David Licate
Recommended Citation
Cooper, Daniel, "Serving the Nation through the Height of a Pandemic: An In-Depth Look at Five Large U.S. Cities’ Budgets and Crime Incidents Over the Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic" (2021). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1451.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1451