My paper with Scott Phillips, A quasi-experimental evaluation using roadblocks and automatic license plate readers to reduce crime in Buffalo, NY, has just been published online first in the Security Journal. Springer gifts me a special link in which you can read the paper. Previously when I have been given links like that from the publisher they have a time limit, but the email for this one said nothing. But even if that goes bad you can always read my pre-print of the article I posted on SSRN.

Title: A quasi-experimental evaluation using roadblocks and automatic license plate readers to reduce crime in Buffalo, NY

Abstract:

This article evaluates the effective of a hot spots policing strategy: using automated license plate readers at roadblocks in Buffalo, NY. Different roadblock locations were chosen by the Buffalo Police Department every day over a two-month period. We use propensity score matching to identify a set of control locations based on prior counts of crime and demographic factors. We find modest reductions in Part 1 violent crimes (10 over all roadblock locations and over the two months) using t tests of mean differences. We find a 20% reduction in traffic accidents using fixed effects negative binomial regression models. Both results are sensitive to the model used though, and the fixed effects models predict increases in crimes due to the intervention. We suggest that the limited intervention at one time may be less effective than focusing on a single location multiple times over an extended period.

And here is Figure 2 from the paper, showing the units of analysis (street midpoints and intersections) and how the treatment locations were assigned.