Nathan Nunn 🇨🇦 🇰🇷 (@nathannunn.bsky.social)

What Does Federal Oversight Do to Policing and Public Safety? Evidence from Seattle (Forthcoming Article) - This paper investigates how federal oversight not precipitated by a major scandal influences policing behavior and public safety. The high-profile events triggering such scandals can independently affect policing and crime, confounding estimates of oversight effects. I examine a 2011 federal investigation into the Seattle Police Department. In response to the heightened scrutiny from the investigation, officers immediately and significantly reduced stops, particularly suspicious-activity and traffic stops in minority neighborhoods. These reductions had no detectable effect on public safety. I conclude that federal oversight implemented in the absence of scandals may lower the social cost of policing. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20240899&from=f