Evidence of Donor Bias in Chicago Police Stops

2025/04/21 by Medina, Angela Zorro, Hackett, David, Green, Devin +1 · 2 voices
#Applications (stat.AP) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Economics and business #General Economics (econ.GN)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2504.15140

Abstract

This study provides the first empirical evidence that private donations to police departments can influence officer behavior. Drawing on the psychology of reciprocity bias, we theorize that public donations create social debts that shape discretionary enforcement. Using quasi-experimental data from Chicago, we find that after 7-Eleven sponsored a police foundation gala, investigatory stops, particularly of Black pedestrians, increased around its stores. These findings reveal a racialized pattern of donor bias in policing and call into question the consequences of private donations to public law enforcement.

Discussions

• 1/ *** NEW WORKING PAPER *** Do private donations to police departments affect officer behavior? We examined the effect of 7-Eleven sponsoring a Chicago Police gala in 2017 on stop and frisk patterns. [bsky, 10 points, 1 comments]
• importantly, researchers documented how Black Chicagoans were impacted *4x more* than white ppl by the increased stops, evidence of how private spending on cops fuels racialized policing The new worki [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]

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