Municipal police officer salaries (N = 1,423) taken from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) and International City/County Management Association (ICMA) survey data and housing characteristics are analyzed to determine relationships between the police officer salaries and the median value of the communities' housing units, the communities' household median incomes, and the communities' physical housing characteristics. Evidence suggests that police salaries are positively correlated with increased housing values, incomes, and physical characteristics, controlling for regional economic differentials. Analyses revealed a curvilinear relationship more complex than the original hypothesis. As income and house values increase, police salaries steadily increase, until a plateau is attained; increasing income and house values then predict decreasing salaries. Economically wealthier communities (e.g., gated communities with private security) are less dependent on their local police for protection and therefore may be less willing than the upper middle classes to pay police officers high salaries. Consistent with Conflict Theory assumptions regarding the role and use of the police by conflicting groups, these findings indicate a direct relationship between upper class home ownership and the price homeowners are willing to pay to protect themselves and their property against perceived intruders. These findings suggest a need for a consistent, determinate police salary scale across all communities and jurisdictions to ensure quality policing is not the result of a particular community's financial resources.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AhearnJ. (1995, April 30). A better way to set cop's pay. The Record, Op-Ed column.
2.
AkersR. L. (1994). Criminological theories. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
3.
BaylesF. (1997, May 20). Plugging the urban police drain, higher pay, less risk makes move easier. USA Today, A, 1:2.
4.
BernardT. J. (1983). The consensus-conflict debate: Form and content in social theories. New York: Columbia University Press.
5.
BohrnstedtG. W. & KnokeD. (1994). Statistics for social data analysis (3rd ed.). Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock.
6.
Bureau of the Census. (1990, 1994). Census of population and housing, population and housing unit counts, United States. (CPH-2-1).
7.
Bureau of the Census. (1992). Population and housing summary tape file 1C. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
8.
Bureau of the Census. (1994). County and city databook, 1992. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
9.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1993) Law enforcement management and administrative statistics (LEMAS), 1990. Conducted by U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
10.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1996). Law enforcement management and administrative statistics (LEMAS), 1993. Conducted by U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
11.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1996). Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics, 1996. Albany, NY: University at Albany, The Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center.
12.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1998) Census of state and local law enforcement agencies, 1996. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
13.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (1997). National employment, hours and earnings. [Online] Available: http://stats.bls.gov/.
14.
CastellanoT. & McGarrelE. F. (1991). The politics of law and order: case study evidence for the conflict model of the criminal law formulation process. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 28, 304–329.
15.
ChamblissW. J. (1964) A sociological analysis of the law of vagrancy. Social Problems12, 67–77
16.
ChamblissW. J. (1969). Crime and the Legal Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
17.
ChamblissW. J. (1975). Criminal law in action. Santa Barbara, CA: Hamiliton.
18.
ChamblissW. J. & SeidmanR. B. (1971). Law, order and power. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
19.
ChandlerT. & GelyR. (1995). Protective service unions, political activities, and bargaining outcomes. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory5, 295–320.
20.
Chesney-LindM. (1989). Girls' crime and woman's place: toward a feminist model of female delinquency. Crime and Delinquency, 35, 5–29.
21.
DalyK. (1989). Neither conflict nor labeling nor paternalism will suffice: intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and family in criminal court decisions. Crime and Delinquency, 35, 136–168.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (1992). Uniform crime reports for the United States, 1991. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
25.
FriedmanJ.HakimS. & SpiegelU. (1987). The effects of community size on the mix of private and public use of security services. Journal of Urban Economics, 22, 230–241.
26.
HallW. C. & VanderportenB. (1977). Unionization, monopsony power, and police salaries. Industrial Relations, 16, 94–100.
27.
JacksonP.I. & CarrollL. (1981). Race and the war on crime: The socio-political determinants of municipal police expenditures in 90 non-southern U.S. cities. American Sociological Review44, 913–925.
28.
JamesM. (1994, November 5). Police replace old scooters with trackers. The Baltimore Sun, p. 1B.
29.
KocienkiewiskiD. (1996, October 18). Suffolk officers awarded large raise. New York Times, p. 1.
30.
LockeT. (1690). The Second Treatise of Government.
31.
MackoS. (1997). Police departments tighten requirement for new applicants. Emergency Response and Research Institute, 1, 186.
32.
MacphersonC. B. (1962). The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, Hobbes to Locke. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
33.
MandersJ. (1997, July 30). Chief-pay increases. The Sequim Gazette, Op-Ed Column.
34.
MathisE. & ZechC. (1985). The community demand for police officers: Relative to the maximum base salary, citizen wants tend to be elastic. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 44, 400–410.
35.
McBrideJ. & BorsukA. (1997, March 17). City police union basks in its political force MPA's actions challenge department under Jones. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, p. 4
36.
McIntyreR. W. (1990). Why police officers resign: A look at the turnover of police officers in Vermont. Montpelier, Vermont: Vermont Criminal Justice Center
37.
MoulderE. R. (1997). Police salaries, 1996, [special data issue, no. 4]. Washington DC: International City/County Management Association.
38.
NorrisJ.M. (1980). An economic analysis of the police labor market. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.
39.
OrlandoAndrea. (1997, October 26). Springfield police awaiting contract. The Star-Ledger, p. 33.
40.
PlattA. W. (1977). The child savers (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
41.
QuinneyR. (1964). Crime in political perspective. American Behavioral Scientist, 8, 19–22.
42.
QuinneyR. (1969). Crime and justice in society. Boston: Little, Brown.
43.
QuinneyR. (1970). The social reality of crime. Boston: Little, Brown.
44.
QuinneyR. (1974). Critique of the legal order. Boston: Little, Brown
45.
QuinneyR. (1980). Class, state and crime. New York: Longman.
46.
RaynerR. (1995, January 22). Wanted: A kinder, gentler cop. New York Times Magazine, Sec.6, p. 26.
47.
RitzerG. (1992). Sociological theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
48.
SayreA. (1995, March 7). Slain officer buried in N.O. with full honors. The Baton Rouge Advocate, p. 3.
49.
SellinT. (1958). Culture conflict and crime. New York: Social Science Research Council.
50.
SpitzerS. (1976). Conflict and consensus in the law enforcement process; urban minorities and the police. Criminology, 14, 2, 189–212.
51.
SpitzerS. & ScullA. (1977). Privatization and capitalist development: The case of the private police. Social Problems, (25)1, 18–29.
52.
Statistical Package for Service Solutions (1997). SPSS Version 8.0. Chicago, IL.
53.
TaylorI.WaltonP., & YoungJ. (1973). The new criminology. New York: Harper & Row.
54.
TrejoS.J. (1991). Public sector unions and municipal employment. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 45, 166–189.
55.
TurkA. (1964). Prospects for theories of criminal behavior. Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 55, 454–461.
56.
TurkA. (1966). Conflict and criminality. American Sociological Review, 31, 338–352.
57.
TurkA. (1969a). Criminality and legal order. Chicago: Rand McNally.
58.
TurkA. (1969b). Introduction. In BongerW. A., Criminality and economic conditions. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
59.
VoldG. B. (1958). Theoretical criminology. New York: Oxford University Press.
