“Mind the Police Dissatisfaction Gap”: The Effect of Callbacks to Victims of Unsolved Crimes in London

Satisfaction from police performance in cases that are screened out from police investigation is low, particularly for victims who report online. In a randomized controlled trial, we report the impact of reassurance telephone callbacks on satisfaction scores for victims of vehicle crime in London, United Kingdom. Evidence suggests that reassurance callbacks cause victims to express more favorable attitudes toward the police, with more pronounced satisfaction scores among minority victims, particularly those who report their crime online. We argue that callbacks to victims are advantageous in an era of a police legitimacy crisis with diminished resources for law enforcement.