Citation

Blackstone EA, Buck AJ, Hakim S. Eval. Program Plann. 2005; 28(2): 233-242.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2004.09.004

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Ninety-four to ninety-nine percent of all police physical responses to burglar alarm activations are false. In 2000 police responded to 36 million false calls at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion. This paper presents and evaluates ten police policies for dealing with this waste of police resources. The paper then suggests that a public-private partnership will yield the highest net social benefits and avoids undesired cross subsidization. It further shows that implementation of a market oriented economic model where the police fulfill merely their public obligation is preferred to intuitive solutions that are often used by police.