Getting back to the state: policing the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the impact of the pandemic (from 2020 to 2021) on levels of trust and legitimacy of the Chilean police (Carabineros) by the population in the metropolitan area of Santiago, Chile. Based on a pseudo-panel method and a cohort fixed-effects regression model that controlled for unobserved time invariant heterogeneity, we found a significant increase in police legitimacy during the pandemic (on average, 63%, among the adult residents of the region, based on the police legitimacy index comprising six perceptual variables). Evidence suggests that the perceived performance of the Carabineros during the pandemic served to recover the trust of citizens, at least temporarily, even when this intervention entailed the enforcement of anti-popular measures.

KEYWORDS:

• Policing
• pandemic
• trust
• legitimacy
• Chile
• Latin America

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://time.com/5791661/who-coronavirus-pandemic-declaration/

2 https://www.amnesty.org/es/latest/press-release/2021/07/chile-exige-investigacion-general-director-carabineros-violaciones-ddhh/

3 https://www.hrw.org/es/world-report/2020/country-chapters/336397#

4 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/CL/Report_Chile_2019_EN.pdf

5 https://www.latinobarometro.org/latContents.jsp

6 https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/lapop.central/viz/LAPOPV3_2/Combination?publish=yes

7 https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2022/02/16/pinera-promulga-ley-de-modernizacion-de-policias-incluye-auditorias-y-preferir-medios-no-violentos.shtml

8 https://www.camara.cl/verDoc.aspx?prmTIPO=DOCUMENTOCOMUNICACIONCUENTA&prmID=70045

9 https://www.minsal.cl/gobierno-anuncia-nuevas-medidas-restrictivas-y-cuarentenas-para-el-control-de-la-pandemia/

10 https://www.notimerica.com/politica/noticia-coronavirus-carabineros-chile-interviene-mas-fiestas-ilegales-tres-meses-2021-todo-2020-20210323210907.html

11 https://www.carabineros.cl/secciones/carabCifras/assets/carabineros_en_cifras2020.pdf

12 https://www.notimerica.com/politica/noticia-coronavirus-carabineros-chile-interviene-mas-fiestas-ilegales-tres-meses-2021-todo-2020-20210323210907.html

13 https://www.carabineros.cl/secciones/carabCifras/assets/carabineros_en_cifras2020.pdf

14 We would like to thank one of the reviewers for suggesting this method for creating a better measure of the DV.

15 It should be remembered that this variable has been highly questioned as people may not walk alone in a neighborhood due to other factors, and not necessarily only because of crime (Mason et al. 2013, Waygood and Susilo 2015). We include it as a possible proxy for crime or perception of crime.