Brenden Beck

When times are tight, do cities cut police or social service budgets more? In a 🚨new study🚨, I find revenue loss is associated with shallow, temporary cuts to policing and deep, enduring cuts to social services. The article, in Criminology, is free. doi.org/10.1111/1745-9…

Automated speed cameras, which detect and fine speeding motorists, reduced total collisions by around 30% and injuries by around 16%, on average, within 900 feet of intersections in the first 7 months of deployment in New York City. In PNAS: ow.ly/hFaz50XHylc

Wait... Speed cameras work? "Cumulatively, over the seven months following [speed camera's] introduction, collisions declined by 30% and injuries by 16%."

Do speed cameras work? Our new study in @PNASNews provides rare causal evidence about NYC’s automated enforcement program, finding large reductions in collisions (30%) & injuries (16%). From me, @BrendenBeck and @jbenmenachem. pnas.org/doi/abs/10.107…

@mattyglesias Interesting. It seems like if Mamdani promised higher pay then kept the share of funding low once in office, that would be in the Sanders mold.

@mattyglesias Ok. Maybe it's still an indication that funding the police department was not a priority of Mayor Sanders?

@mattyglesias During Sanders' mayoralty, the Burlington police budget was the lowest it has been for last half century.

@daveweigel During Sanders' mayoralty, the Burlington police budget was the lowest it has been for last half century.

Mamdani's model is Bernie Sanders, who was more interested in getting elected mayor of Burlington than in passing every ideological pop quiz. You could also call it the Lula Method. semafor.com/article/06/12/…

@mariacarreri This looks amazing! Do you know when you might share the dataset?

New working paper alert 🚨 We investigate the influence of police unions in U.S. local politics. We show that in cities where the mayor was supported by a police union, police departments obtain more resources, but, if anything, police performance worsens in these cities.

@CarolynChernoff @RutgersSCJ Thanks, Carolyn! Hope you’re well.

It’s true, I have joined the faculty at the @RutgersSCJ. I will dearly miss my CU Denver colleagues and students, but I’m excited to return to the NYC area and work alongside the amazing criminal justice scholars at Rutgers. If you’re in the area, get in touch!

@vbacak @RutgersSCJ Thanks, Valerio!

@joshuakeating @RutgersSCJ Thanks, Josh!

@BrendenBeck @RutgersSCJ Congrats!!!

@Roseann97Ann @RutgersSCJ @Rutgers_Newark Thanks, Rose Ann!

@RutgersSCJ @Rutgers_Newark @BrendenBeck Congratulations to Brenden Beck, PhD

School of Criminal Justice @Rutgers_Newark welcomes Dr. @BrendenBeck to its esteemed faculty this fall as an Associate Professor. #highered

@ps_hepburn @RutgersSCJ Thanks, Peter! We'll have to get lunch soon.

@BrendenBeck @RutgersSCJ What great news! Welcome to Newark!

@profharvnich @RutgersSCJ Thanks, Harvey!

@Shjarback_CCJ @RutgersSCJ Thanks. Yes, I'll drop a line once I'm settled at Rutgers!

@BrendenBeck @RutgersSCJ Congrats and welcome back to the mid-Atlantic! Would love to chat sometime 🤓

.@BUsociologydept is hiring two assistant professors! Sociology of sexualities and sociology of race & ethnicity. See position ads below. @ASAnews

@PeterMoskos @LessCrime @jnixy @mwrubin ...construction, accidents when driving, etc.) and I think the higher fatality numbers in construction/logging/etc support that. Though if we're appealing to a more qualitative definition of "danger," like the "nature" or "reducibility" of the danger, data won't be much help.

@PeterMoskos @LessCrime @jnixy @mwrubin I hear you about the irrational human interactions element. That seems unique, though present to a lesser extent in ER nursing and some social work jobs. I'm less convinced that policing is uniquely unpredictable or instantaneous (weather when roofing, mechanical failures in ...

New article examines 595 homicides of on-duty cops from 2008-2021 for evidence of ideological motives. Note the spike in 2016, but remember it's a 1-year increase of +6 (in a country with 700K cops at a time when violence was trending ↑). #AcademicTwitter doi.org/10.1177/109861…