| This dissertation examined three interrelated issues that are central to municipal policing in the contemporary United States. These three issues are policing expenditures, police performance, and policing strategies, of which the first two are the primary focus of this dissertation. The study is an interdisciplinary approach to examining the issues as it draws on literature of public administration and policy, political science, criminology, sociology, and economics.;The study first examined the relationship between municipal spending on policing and a host of factors, including social-economic and demographic variables, as implied by rational choice theory and minority threat/conflict theory. It utilized data from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to test hypotheses on the factors that correlate with the level of police spending of municipal governments, including cities, townships, and villages. Using a weighted ordinary least square (OLS) regression model, this exploratory cross-sectional study found that factors such as prior year crime rate, population size, population density, ethnicity, geographic division, and form of government, are significant predictors for the level of per capita spending in the sampled cities. In addition, the study confirmed to some extent, the rational choice theory and conflict/minority threat theory.;Secondly, the study examined the relationship between police organizational performance and other factors, such as organizational structure and design, police spending, professionalism, human resources strategy, resource allocation, and the application of technology in the municipalities of the United States. Using clearance rate as the measurement of organizational performance in 2005, the study found that the relationships between the organizational performance and these variables are not significant, partly due to inherent problems with data reporting practices and quality. On the other hand, it is also quite plausible that the study only reveals, due to various constraints, the gap between the actual organizational performance and organizational design that is common across public organizations. It pointed out the chasm between the evaluation of organizational performance and organizational design and management.;Thirdly, as community policing has been widely accepted as one of the philosophies of crime management, this research also reviewed the evolution of policing strategies in the United States and critically examined the assessments of community policing with regard to program effectiveness and organizational barriers in the process of program implementation. The literature review included a discussion of current research on crime reduction in general and the prospect of policing strategies. |
