Do stings control crime? An evaluation of a police fencing operation

Police antifencing operations, euphemistically called “stings,” have been and continue to be a popular police undercover tactic for combating property crime. This paper is a time-series analysis of the effects of an antifencing sting project on what Mohr (1973) described as transitive (environmental impact) and reflexive (organizational survival) police organizational goals. The study, based on data from a 1985–86 Birmingham, Alabama sting, finds that only the reflexive goals were served and that the project may have had a negative environmental impact. It is concluded that the potential benefits to police reflexive goal achievement do not offset the potential costs associated with storefront stings and that the police industry should give serious consideration to removing this tactic from its arsenal.