Supporting the Security Department of the Mayor’s Office of Bogota To Implement Rapid-Fire RCTs and Use Evidence in Decision-Making

In Bogotá, one of Latin America’s largest cities, 59 percent of residents report feeling insecure in the city (a sharp increase from 24 percent in 2008). The Mayor-elect has appointed a prominent economist from Universidad de los Andes, Daniel Mejia, to become Secretary of Security. Having spent several years running randomized interventions with police in other Colombian cities, Dr. Mejia intends to run dozens of crime RCTs in Bogota as part of its reform efforts. The Mayor’s office has already planned two rapid-fire RCTs for their first months in office: one of “hotspot” policing tactics in thousands of city blocks; and a second of lighting, clean-up, policing, and infrastructure investments in 200 high-crime parks. Beginning in mid-2016, the Mayor’s office also plans to design larger and more ambitious RCTs around their medium-term projects. The J-PAL Crime & Violence sector and the IPA Colombia office will provide technical assistance in the design, implementation, and scaling of RCTs. This partnership also involved funding and research support from the Impact Evaluation Office of the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) and the Department of Economics and Center for the Study of Security and Drugs at the Universidad de los Andes. For more on the partnership with the Bogota Mayor's Office, see this news story from August 2016 and this evaluation summary.