Stucky argues, using insights from political resource theory, that the local political context (form of government, city council structure and partisanship of elections) affects the ability of citizens to make their concerns heard in local government and, consequently, their ability to organize against crime. Additionally, he argues that local political systems that are more susceptible to citizen pressure will have relatively more police. These hypotheses are tested on U.S. cities with 25,000 or more residents in 1991. Results suggest that the effect of social disorganization on crime rates depends on the local political system. Results also suggest that the relative size of police departments in 1991 varies by local political context.