TY - JOUR
T1 - The reliability of police employee counts
T2 - Comparing FBI and ICMA data, 1954-2008
AU - King, William R.
AU - Cihan, Abdullah
AU - Heinonen, Justin A.
PY - 2011/9
Y1 - 2011/9
N2 - Researchers commonly use secondary data counts of police employees from police agencies. There has been some concern with using such data, yet there have been no published systematic assessments of their reliability. Purpose: This paper compares the reliability of annual counts of police officers and civilians from the FBI's Police Employees data to those in the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) Municipal Year Book reported for 38 large city police agencies between 1954 and 2008. Methods: We use bivariate correlations and visual analyses of line charts to demonstrate the reliability of these two datasets, examining in particular situations in which inaccuracies emerged. Results: Overall, both data sets record accurate counts of police employees, but there is some evidence of reporting irregularities. These irregularities manifest themselves as either city/agency-specific or temporally-bounded reporting errors. Conclusions: Although reporting errors are rare in these data, future researchers should consider the potential impact of reporting errors for certain years and agencies.
AB - Researchers commonly use secondary data counts of police employees from police agencies. There has been some concern with using such data, yet there have been no published systematic assessments of their reliability. Purpose: This paper compares the reliability of annual counts of police officers and civilians from the FBI's Police Employees data to those in the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) Municipal Year Book reported for 38 large city police agencies between 1954 and 2008. Methods: We use bivariate correlations and visual analyses of line charts to demonstrate the reliability of these two datasets, examining in particular situations in which inaccuracies emerged. Results: Overall, both data sets record accurate counts of police employees, but there is some evidence of reporting irregularities. These irregularities manifest themselves as either city/agency-specific or temporally-bounded reporting errors. Conclusions: Although reporting errors are rare in these data, future researchers should consider the potential impact of reporting errors for certain years and agencies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80053202588&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2011.08.002
DO - 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2011.08.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80053202588
SN - 0047-2352
VL - 39
SP - 445
EP - 451
JO - Journal of Criminal Justice
JF - Journal of Criminal Justice
IS - 5
ER -