Experimental evidence shows police leaders may make strategic decisions depending on visuals presented: results from a multi-armed survey experiment

Purpose

To examine whether various data structures, visualizations, and “nudges” impact police leader’s (lieutenant and above) strategic crime prevention decisions.

Methods

We utilized a multi-armed survey experiment in which police leaders (N = 1195) were randomly assigned various data visuals and “nudges” to investigate their impact on police leader’s decision-making intentions.

Results

When police leaders were presented process behavioral charts and hot spot street segment maps, they more accurately identified jurisdictional crime trends and high crime areas, respectively. However, when presented with kernel density maps compared to hot spot maps, police leaders were not influenced by data visuals and no more likely to respond to crime problems with empirically promising evidence-based practices.

Conclusions

This study highlights the value of data presentation and visualizations in how data is presented (e.g., charts, maps) influences police leaders’ decision-making. Data analysts should present refined (micro-unit) data visuals to avoid misappropriating police resources in areas where police resources may not be heavily needed. Further, process behavioral charts provide realistic variations in jurisdictional crime trends, which were clearly interpreted by police leaders. Police researchers should consistently keep police leaders apprised of “what works, what doesn’t, what’s promising,” while police leaders should engage with data/research and consider implementing evidence-based practices.