More Cops, Less Trust? Disentangling the Relationship between Police Numbers and Trust in the Police in the European Union

This paper examines whether the number of police officers per inhabitant predicts trust in the police across EU countries using data from Eurobarometer, Eurostat, and the Corruption Perception Index. While a negative correlation suggests higher trust in countries with fewer police officers, this relationship is spurious when controlling for relevant covariates. Perceptions of corruption, aligned with distributive justice theory, explain most of the variation in trust, nullifying the effect of police numbers.

Journal Article