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This study sought to identify what parking facility characteristics and management practices within the Washington Metro Transit Police (MTP) might create opportunities for crime, analyze those findings in relation to past crimes, and identify promising crime reduction strategies. The project consisted of three main research components: (1) identification of the magnitude of car crime in commuter parking facilities and possible strategies for prevention of such car crime; (2) identification and implementation of a crime prevention strategy; and (3) evaluation of the strategy's effectiveness.

In partnership with the MTP staff, the research team created a blocked randomized experimental design involving 50 matched pairs of commuter parking facilities in which a combination of live and dummy digital cameras were deployed, along with accompanying signage, at the exits of one randomly selected facility from each pairing. After a period of 12 months following camera implementation, the research team analyzed the impact of the cameras on crime occurring in and around Metro's parking facilities.

This project is concerned with understanding the determinants of racial bias in police traffic stops and in the city of Syracuse, New York. Using an officer-level panel of data on vehicle stops and vehicle searches by 512 officers from 2006 to 2009, the primary goal of this research is to better understand the effects of officer experience on their proclivities for racial bias in traffic stops, while controlling for officer, citizen, and neighborhood demographics.

Included in these data are variables for census tracts as well as their racial and ethnic makeup, times and dates when traffic stops occurred, sunrise and sunset data for the City of Syracuse, and the racial and ethnic makeup of citizens involved in stops.

Police officers rely on technology to safely arrive to scenes of emergency response. Although the technology in vehicles is becoming more sophisticated, it also presents a hazard while trying to safely operate a vehicle, often at high speeds. Increased refinement and understanding of the technologies are needed, including how they can be controlled and what is acceptable use for modern-day police officers.

The two objectives of this research were 1) to determine ways to improve police officer safety by evaluating technology enhancements that improve information delivery to officers in patrol vehicles and 2) to evaluate agency driving policies for response-to-calls service using crash and arrest data, specifically to investigate if vehicle driving speed influences a call's outcome. These objectives were achieved using parallel research investigations, including a qualitative analysis of how officers perceived and reacted to technology enhancements that were deployed in patrol vehicles. Focus groups and a follow-up survey were conducted so officers could provide feedback on the role of technology and the specific software programs implemented during the study for evaluation. Agency traffic crash data and computer-aided dispatch response-to-call data were also analyzed to determine the impact of response-to-call speed cap policies.

This collection contains data representing six police agencies across the United States: response-to-call data (DS1-DS4), vehicle crash data (DS5-DS7), post-intervention officer survey data (DS8), and pre-intervention officer focus group data (DS9). NOTE: Focus group data are not currently available.