Abstract

How does police violence affect civilian engagement with law-enforcement? We document a sharp rise in gunshots coupled with declining 911 call volume across thirteen major US cities in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. This pattern occurs in both white and non-white neighborhoods, is not driven by ceiling effects in crime reporting, persists beyond the protest movement, and is not accompanied by large declines in police response times. We find similar declines in reporting after the murder of Michael Brown, but not for other, less nationally salient police murders. Trends in national survey data reveal that police favorability also declined sharply after George Floyd’s murder, and that victims of crime became less likely to report their victimization due to fear of police harassment. Our results suggest that high profile acts of police violence may erode a key input into effective public safety, civilian crime reporting, and highlight the call-to-shot ratio as a natural measure of community engagement with law-enforcement.