DOI: 10.3886/icpsr32521
title: Evaluation of Camera Use to Prevent Crime in Commuter Parking Facilities within the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Parking Facilities, 2004-2009
title: Archival Version

description: This study sought to identify what parking facility characteristics and management practices within the Washington Metro Transit Police (MTP) might create opportunities for crime, analyze those findings in relation to past crimes, and identify promising crime reduction strategies. The project consisted of three main research components: (1) identification of the magnitude of car crime in commuter parking facilities and possible strategies for prevention of such car crime; (2) identification and implementation of a crime prevention strategy; and (3) evaluation of the strategy's effectiveness. In partnership with the MTP staff, the research team created a blocked randomized experimental design involving 50 matched pairs of commuter parking facilities in which a combination of live and dummy digital cameras were deployed, along with accompanying signage, at the exits of one randomly selected facility from each pairing. After a period of 12 months following camera implementation, the research team analyzed the impact of the cameras on crime occurring in and around Metro's parking facilities.
description: The specific goals of the study were to: Identify the environmental characteristics and management practices of WMATA's parking facilities and how they may create criminal opportunities;; Analyze those characteristics and practices in relation to the incidence, prevalence, and distribution of crimes in WMATA's parking facilities using historical crime data;; Work with MTP to identify and implement promising strategies to reduce car crime and prioritize those strategies with regard to their anticipated effectiveness;; Implement one selected strategy in half of WMATA's 50 commuter lots through a blocked randomized experimental design; and ; Evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention through a difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis and a cost-benefit analysis.;
description: This project consists of three main research components: (1) identification of the magnitude of car crime in commuter parking facilities and possible strategies for prevention of such car crime; (2) identification and implementation of a crime prevention strategy; and (3) evaluation of the strategy's effectiveness. In partnership with the MTP staff, the research team created a blocked randomized experimental design involving 50 matched pairs of commuter parking facilities in which a combination of live and dummy digital cameras were deployed, along with accompanying signage, at the exits of one randomly selected facility from each pairing. After a period of 12 months following camera implementation, the research team analyzed the impact of the cameras on crime occurring in and around Metro's parking facilities.Research processes involved the collection and analysis of crime data from MTP and jurisdictions in which WMATA operates, as well as the physical and environmental characteristics of Metro's parking facilities. These data, along with conversations with MTP on the feasibility of various interventions, informed the choice of intervention (recordable digital cameras) and the random selection process employed to determine which facilities would receive the intervention. After a 12-month intervention period, the effectiveness of the intervention was examined through a variety of statistical tests including a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) analysis. The stations visited had several common characteristics. All of the stations had bus bays located near the entrance, storage areas for bicycles, and Kiss and Ride accommodations enabling drivers to drop off passengers near the Metro entrance without parking their vehicles. In addition, all but one of the stations had metered parking spaces located near the all-day parking facilities. For classification purposes, the facilities were placed in one of three categories: (1) garages; (2) surface lots; and (3) combination facilities, which have a parking garage that is partially or completely surrounded by a surface lot that shares the same set of vehicle entrances and exits. In total, researchers conducted observations at 52 facilities: 32 surface lots, 15 garages, and five combination facilities. At the time of the site observations, the capacities of the WMATA-owned parking facilities ranged from 194 spaces to 5,069 spaces. During the site visits, 35 percent of the facilities were completely full (100 percent of spaces utilized), 46 percent of the facilities were mostly full (80-99 percent of spaces utilized), and 19 percent of the facilities were less than 80 percent full.To provide context on the operations of Metro parking facilities, administrative data on Metro operations were collected from MTP and other offices within Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA). These data included hours of parking facility operation and staffing, parking facility utilization, and policing practices. This information, in conjunction with the crime data and site observations, helped to inform the overall understanding of each parking facility's criminal opportunities.
description: There are 87 datasets for this study, with approximately 18 files per parking location and two sets of files that contain multiple parking locations combined. All datasets contain the same three variables described below. Each dataset represents the number of crimes reported during the month/year for various crime types (including crime categories with several crime types combined). The variables in the dataset include: TARGET represented the number of crimes occurring in the specified area that received the intervention during the given month/year.; TO_DATE represents the month and year the crime occurred (MM/DD/YYYY), with the day set to "1" for all cases.; COMP represents the number of crimes occurring in the specified area that were used as a control area for comparison purposes.; The types of crimes were: auto theft without attempts, auto theft with attempts, attempted auto theft, and car-related crime. All crime, property crime, larceny and violent crime were included for only the analysis of all stations combined. Car-related crime included motor vehicle theft, attempted motor vehicle theft and theft from automobiles (including theft of merchandise within cars and theft of auto parts and accessories. The site observation instrument contained 60 questions that applied to all types of facilities, twelve questions specific to parking garages, and three questions specific to parking lots.Facilities were "blocked" on certain characteristics/clusters of characteristics to maximize the equivalence of the groups. Blocking is a term used to describe matching of groups within similar scores on particular variable(s) so that treatment and control groups each containing units with similar characteristics on the blocking variable(s). Random assignment with matched pairs of WMATA parking lots was employed. Initially, all 52 independent parking facilities was anticipated for inclusion in the study (located at 35 Metro stations), allowing the random assignment of 26 facilities to the treatment and 26 facilities to control. However, it was subsequently learned that one of the facilities would be closing before the end of 2006, thus eliminating the possibility of post-treatment analysis of crime and reducing the sample size to an odd number of facilities. The research team therefore excluded another facility from the randomization process.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: All Locations Att Data 
 DS2: All Locations Combo Data 
 DS3: All Locations From Data 
 DS4: All Locations Lar Data 
 DS5: All Locations Mvt Data 
 DS6: All Locations Of Data 
 DS7: All Locations Prop Data 
 DS8: All Locations Tot Data 
 DS9: All Locations Vio Data 
 DS10: Branch Avenue Asst Data 
 DS11: Branch Avenue Att Data 
 DS12: Branch Avenue Combo Data 
 DS13: Branch Avenue From Data 
 DS14: Branch Avenue Lar Data 
 DS15: Branch Avenue Mvt Data 
 DS16: Branch Avenue Of Data 
 DS17: Control Branch Avenue Att Data 
 DS18: Control Branch Avenue Combo Data 
 DS19: Control Branch Avenue From Data 
 DS20: Control Branch Avenue Lar Data 
 DS21: Control Branch Avenue Mvt Data 
 DS22: Control Branch Avenue Of Data 
 DS23: Control College Park Att Data 
 DS24: Control College Park Combo Data 
 DS25: Control College Park From Data 
 DS26: Control College Park Lar Data 
 DS27: Control College Park Mvt Data 
 DS28: Control College Park Of Data 
 DS29: Control Huntington Att Data 
 DS30: Control Huntington Combo Data 
 DS31: Control Huntington From Data 
 DS32: Control Huntington Lar Data 
 DS33: Control Huntington Mvt Data 
 DS34: Control Huntington Of Data 
 DS35: Control Huntington Prop Data 
 DS36: College Park Att Data 
 DS37: College Park Combo Data 
 DS38: College Park From Data 
 DS39: College Park Lar Data 
 DS40: College Park Mvt Data 
 DS41: College Park Of Data 
 DS42: Control Shady Grove Att Data 
 DS43: Control Shady Grove Combo Data 
 DS44: Control Shady Grove From Data 
 DS45: Control Shady Grove Mvt Data 
 DS46: Control Shady Grove Of Data 
 DS47: Control Twinbrook Att Data 
 DS48: Control Twinbrook Combo Data 
 DS49: Control Twinbrook From Data 
 DS50: Control Twinbrook Mvt Data 
 DS51: Control Twinbrook Of Data 
 DS52: Control Vienna Att Data 
 DS53: Control Vienna Combo Data 
 DS54: Control Vienna From Data 
 DS55: Control Vienna Lar Data 
 DS56: Control Vienna Mvt Data 
 DS57: Control Vienna Of Data 
 DS58: Huntington Att Data 
 DS59: Huntington Combo Data 
 DS60: Huntington From Data 
 DS61: Huntington Lar Data 
 DS62: Huntington Mvt Data 
 DS63: Huntington Of Data 
 DS64: All Single Lot Att Data 
 DS65: All Single Lot Combo Data 
 DS66: All Single Lot From Data 
 DS67: All Single Lot Lar Data 
 DS68: All Single Lot Mvt Data 
 DS69: All Single Lot Of Data 
 DS70: Shady Grove Att Data 
 DS71: Shady Grove Combo Data 
 DS72: Shady Grove From Data 
 DS73: Shady Grove Lar Data 
 DS74: Shady Grove Mvt Data 
 DS75: Shady Grove Of Data 
 DS76: Twinbrook Att Data 
 DS77: Twinbrook Combo Data 
 DS78: Twinbrook From Data 
 DS79: Twinbrook Lar Data 
 DS80: Twinbrook Mvt Data 
 DS81: Twinbrook Of Data 
 DS82: Vienna Att Data 
 DS83: Vienna Combo Data 
 DS84: Vienna From Data 
 DS85: Vienna Lar Data 
 DS86: Vienna Mvt Data 
 DS87: Vienna Of Data
description: record abstracts, coded on-site observation
description: Crime in 50 of Washington Metro Area Transit Authority's parking facilities occurring in 2004 and 2005.
description: The research team generated a list of matched pairs based on the following characteristics: surrounding area crime rate (i.e. high, medium, low), lot/garage capacity, AM/PM payment policy, facility type (e.g. garage, lot or combination facility)and Metrorail line (e.g. red, green, orange). In conducting the site observations, researchers visited a total of 35 different stations on the WMATA's red, orange, yellow, green, and blue lines. The majority of the stations (26) had only one parking facility each, while the remaining nine stations had multiple parking facilities.