Do fewer cops mean less crime?
The cynical and sarcastic among you will say, "Yeah, less cops stealing." We respond, "Haha, you're an ass."
But if there are fewer officers on the street making fewer arrests and generating less paper, then what?
A lot of police work is perception. If you see more police, you might think, "Hey, this place is pretty well protected" or you may think, "This place is out of control." If you see the beat car once every other week or so, are you actually less secure? What if the beat car is in on a burglary every day? They are fighting actual crime, but the high number of arrests would lead one to believe the neighborhood is actually less safe. And while they are processing, do other criminal have free rein?
Now look at backlogs. If it takes the police 3 and 4 hours to show up at a disturbance call or a damage to property call or a dope job, does the citizen who called actually wait around for the whole 4 hours to make a report that isn't going anywhere but the "suspended" file? No. But does that mean the crime didn't occur? Not at all - it just means it wasn't reported. And from there, does the perception of neighborhood crime take a hit? Neighbors talk, they'll let each other know about something that happened, but it never made the statistics. Every one of us has a story about showing up at a job and filling out a report after the fact and then the victim relates that their buddy up the street had the same thing happen three days ago, but they never made a report.
So are backlogs (or Radio Assignments Pending - RAPs) actually a good thing for crime reporting? A frustrated citizen not reporting crime might be a better thing for Shortshanks and his statisticians. It almost means the only true measure of crime is the number of bodies showing up at hospitals with holes in them.
The cynical and sarcastic among you will say, "Yeah, less cops stealing." We respond, "Haha, you're an ass."
But if there are fewer officers on the street making fewer arrests and generating less paper, then what?
A lot of police work is perception. If you see more police, you might think, "Hey, this place is pretty well protected" or you may think, "This place is out of control." If you see the beat car once every other week or so, are you actually less secure? What if the beat car is in on a burglary every day? They are fighting actual crime, but the high number of arrests would lead one to believe the neighborhood is actually less safe. And while they are processing, do other criminal have free rein?
Now look at backlogs. If it takes the police 3 and 4 hours to show up at a disturbance call or a damage to property call or a dope job, does the citizen who called actually wait around for the whole 4 hours to make a report that isn't going anywhere but the "suspended" file? No. But does that mean the crime didn't occur? Not at all - it just means it wasn't reported. And from there, does the perception of neighborhood crime take a hit? Neighbors talk, they'll let each other know about something that happened, but it never made the statistics. Every one of us has a story about showing up at a job and filling out a report after the fact and then the victim relates that their buddy up the street had the same thing happen three days ago, but they never made a report.
So are backlogs (or Radio Assignments Pending - RAPs) actually a good thing for crime reporting? A frustrated citizen not reporting crime might be a better thing for Shortshanks and his statisticians. It almost means the only true measure of crime is the number of bodies showing up at hospitals with holes in them.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire