We test for a “Ferguson Effect” by studying how police effort responds to different incidents of police violence. We do so using two settings in Minneapolis: (1) George Floyd’s murder, and (2) police-involved shootings. We find that following George Floyd’s death, arrests and police-initiated calls decreased by 61 and 69 percent, respectively. By comparison, arrests and police-initiated calls decreased by 3 and 1.5 percent following police-involved shootings. We conclude that incidents of police violence generate “de-policing”, and the effect is much larger following highly publicized incidents. Contains the main data and programs used to conduct the analysis in the paper.
The following publications are supplemented by the data in this project.
Mikdash, Maya, and Reem Zaiour. “Does (All) Police Violence Cause De-Policing? Evidence from George Floyd and Police Shootings in Minneapolis.” AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2022. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20221098.
