Research summaryWe tested the effectiveness of virtual response in policing as an alternative to the traditional physical presence of officers to nonemergency calls for service. We randomly assigned 1059 eligible calls to either virtual or in‐person responses. We estimated the results in terms of waiting time, criminal justice outcomes, cost efficiency, and victim satisfaction based on a representative sample of telephone interviews. We found significant improvements across all measures when using a virtual response, including reduced victim waiting times, greater odds of arrest and charges, and enhanced perceptions of procedural justice, satisfaction, trust, and confidence in the police service. We found no adverse effects on victims due to the lack of physical presence.Research implicationsThese findings suggest that, as with e‐health services, law enforcement can benefit from a cost–beneficial virtual response to nonemergency calls for service. We encourage its consideration as a mass deployment option in policing, as well as a basis for future experimental replications.

中文翻译：

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通过视频响应非紧急服务呼叫：一项随机对照试验


研究摘要我们测试了虚拟响应在警务中的有效性，作为传统警官亲自到场的非紧急服务呼叫的替代方案。我们将 1059 个符合条件的电话随机分配到虚拟或面对面回复。我们根据具有代表性的电话访谈样本，从等待时间、刑事司法结果、成本效益和受害者满意度等方面估计了结果。我们发现，在使用虚拟响应时，所有措施都有了显著改善，包括减少了受害者等待时间、提高了逮捕和指控的几率，以及增强了对程序正义的感知、满意度、信任度和对警察服务的信心。我们发现由于缺乏身体存在，没有对受害者产生不利影响。研究意义这些发现表明，与电子医疗服务一样，执法部门可以从对非紧急服务呼叫的成本有利的虚拟响应中受益。我们鼓励将其视为警务中的大规模部署选项，以及未来实验性复制的基础。