Police Do Not Lower Crime Rates?

[KevDen2005]

back when I shared a house on the south end with some friends, the mexicans down the street would rip up and down the block in their mustang at about 80. (well, they still do.. I just don't live there anymore)

if community policing was in effect, my buddy could have waved them down, then directed their attention to me on the porch holding my rifle, then asked them politely to slow down.

it is not used because

A. self defense is criminalized and

B. [insert lazy cops comment here]

It is used however it depends on the size of the city, number of police officers, and call load for that department. Different departments will have different effects. My PD works fairly closely with a lot organizations and we also have community service officers that their sole duty is to make contact with community leaders, businesses, etc.

I would also suggest that research has shown that criminals watch patterns of police officers and once they get used to a certain pattern the criminal strikes (i.e. breaking into cars or houses). It is important for an officer for community safety as well as personal safety to not e complacent and not to be repeat their actions whenever possible during patrolling.

You make a point about lazy officers, I have worked with some that I have criticised to their face because they aren't pro-active enough in their areas. Some PD's just don't have the time.

[Elhuero]

It is used however it depends on the size of the city, number of police officers, and call load for that department. Different departments will have different effects. My PD works fairly closely with a lot organizations and we also have community service officers that their sole duty is to make contact with community leaders, businesses, etc.

I would also suggest that research has shown that criminals watch patterns of police officers and once they get used to a certain pattern the criminal strikes (i.e. breaking into cars or houses). It is important for an officer for community safety as well as personal safety to not e complacent and not to be repeat their actions whenever possible during patrolling.

You make a point about lazy officers, I have worked with some that I have criticised to their face because they aren't pro-active enough in their areas. Some PD's just don't have the time.

Kev great post and thanks again for what you do.

we mentioned the problem several times to CSPD and they just couldn't be bothered with it.

[ldmaster]

Community policing, like most general policies adopted and used by modern police departments start out very well in the conceptual phase...

Then "community policing" turns into something else.

It becomes a by-word, used like D.A.R.E. to reassure the public that a police department is "doing something".

Want a good example of HOW community policing works? Ask any regular patrol officer in denver if, at times, they are asked to "deemphasize" any particular classification of crime.

In Aurora public schools, and Cherry Creek Schools violent crimes are simply not written up as violent crimes. Get beat up at school, and you WONT find a crime report written about it. Drug buy? "de-emphasized" by school administration on school grounds.

so, as long as politicians can de-emphasize any particular police activity, any statistics associated with police work are inherently a lie.

When they study drugs in clinical trials, they use "double blind" so even the researchers dont know who is getting what.

how does the study affect the outcome? the politicians KNOW the study is taking place, or the time period when it will take place - and policies are changed to affect that study.

I was sort of wondering, in Albuquerque when crime rate went to 0 - was this from the UCR? Because the FBI gets it's stats directly from departments, it simply follows that if a department isn't writing up any crime, then the stats MUST be 0.

For folks that actually think that they have an 'effective' community policing effort - ask 10 residents who their PAR officer is - if 1 out of 10 knows the answer, I'd be surprised. Ask any PAR officer what the vacancy rate is in an apartment complex, and they wouldn't know that -

In short, "community policing" doesn't encourage an actual intimate relationship with the neighborhood you are assigned to. Even if it DID, between calls for service and the required paperwork, there is almost NO time that can be spent learning things about people in a neighborhood who ARENT criminals.

[KevDen2005]

Community policing, like most general policies adopted and used by modern police departments start out very well in the conceptual phase...

Then "community policing" turns into something else.

It becomes a by-word, used like D.A.R.E. to reassure the public that a police department is "doing something".

Want a good example of HOW community policing works? Ask any regular patrol officer in denver if, at times, they are asked to "deemphasize" any particular classification of crime.

In Aurora public schools, and Cherry Creek Schools violent crimes are simply not written up as violent crimes. Get beat up at school, and you WONT find a crime report written about it. Drug buy? "de-emphasized" by school administration on school grounds.

so, as long as politicians can de-emphasize any particular police activity, any statistics associated with police work are inherently a lie.

When they study drugs in clinical trials, they use "double blind" so even the researchers dont know who is getting what.

how does the study affect the outcome? the politicians KNOW the study is taking place, or the time period when it will take place - and policies are changed to affect that study.

I was sort of wondering, in Albuquerque when crime rate went to 0 - was this from the UCR? Because the FBI gets it's stats directly from departments, it simply follows that if a department isn't writing up any crime, then the stats MUST be 0.

For folks that actually think that they have an 'effective' community policing effort - ask 10 residents who their PAR officer is - if 1 out of 10 knows the answer, I'd be surprised. Ask any PAR officer what the vacancy rate is in an apartment complex, and they wouldn't know that -

In short, "community policing" doesn't encourage an actual intimate relationship with the neighborhood you are assigned to. Even if it DID, between calls for service and the required paperwork, there is almost NO time that can be spent learning things about people in a neighborhood who ARENT criminals.

You make a very interesting point about stats, that I wasn't planning on talking about but wanted to mention. If officers aren't taking reports than nothing gets reported.

There was a study done several years ago (I wish I could remember where I saw it now, but I can't) it was either about child abuse or child sex assault or something very similar. It went up several hundred percent. At first it appeared that the statistic came out of nowhere but it was then realized through study that people were reporting the occurance more often rather than not, hence the huge increase of reports to the FBI.

[KevDen2005]

Kev great post and thanks again for what you do.

we mentioned the problem several times to CSPD and they just couldn't be bothered with it.

I appreciate it brother,

something I should add is funding. I have a friend that works for CSPD I'm not going to defend them, but they are literally about 300 cops understaffed given their city size, etc. That being said when we get into a financial crisis, police and fire are some of the first things to get funding reduced, then there goes the ability to have things like Community Service Officers and have time to reach out to the community. If one looks at Colorado they can see that Law Enforcement including all of the Jails and services takes up less than 3 percent of the state budget, so cutting doesn't really cut that much.

Anyway, I hope it gets better with CSPD for you. So I thought this budgeting light might be helpful.