Throw Money at the Problem, and Crime should go Away... right?
This past May, Cincinnati city council decided to spend $1.2 million for additional police patrols. This raised a controversy (believe it or not). It sounds like a good plan, however, with the city facing a $13.2 million deficeit at the time, spending an additional $1.2 million seemed like it made little fiscal sence. You can read about the story here
Here is where I am puzzled, how come nobody seems to question as to whether spending more money on police patrols will work?
Last year, through Cincinnati Citizens on Patrol training class, one of the speakers was Lt Rahtz of the Cincinnati Police Department. He spoke about some of the differnent ways to fight crime, and to attack 'crime hot spots'. It is difficult to tell if some of his ideas would work (as those programs have barely materialized), however, none of his programs ever talk about the need for more police patrols. In fact, they do not even talk about the need for more money to be spent.
Are more police officers always the answer? Lt Rahtz sites an experiment in Kansas City where the police department there took all of their patrols out of one beat, and sent them to a beat with a similar crime rate (the only time a police officer would enter that beat was when dispatched). So for a time, one beat had twice as much police presence as before, and the other one had virtually none.
So, what was the end result? Crime stayed the same in both beats. Police presence had no effect on crime!
So how did this experiment of having more police patrols in the summer time workout? It is still too early to tell if overall crime was affected (those crime stats are usually reported several months into the next year), but we do know that the murder rate is flirting with an all-time high. In fact, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that we are 3 murders away from setting the record. It doesn't look like this $1.2 million was well spent.
It seems odd that someone who has devoted his adult life to fighting crime talked about the need to better target crime hotspots and to listen to the citizens more closely. Our elected officials, who runs council on a part-time basis, think they know better, and would rather throw money at the problem, and show up for photo ops touting how through their leadership telling people that their leadership is making Cincinnati safer.
Here is where I am puzzled, how come nobody seems to question as to whether spending more money on police patrols will work?
Last year, through Cincinnati Citizens on Patrol training class, one of the speakers was Lt Rahtz of the Cincinnati Police Department. He spoke about some of the differnent ways to fight crime, and to attack 'crime hot spots'. It is difficult to tell if some of his ideas would work (as those programs have barely materialized), however, none of his programs ever talk about the need for more police patrols. In fact, they do not even talk about the need for more money to be spent.
Are more police officers always the answer? Lt Rahtz sites an experiment in Kansas City where the police department there took all of their patrols out of one beat, and sent them to a beat with a similar crime rate (the only time a police officer would enter that beat was when dispatched). So for a time, one beat had twice as much police presence as before, and the other one had virtually none.
So, what was the end result? Crime stayed the same in both beats. Police presence had no effect on crime!
So how did this experiment of having more police patrols in the summer time workout? It is still too early to tell if overall crime was affected (those crime stats are usually reported several months into the next year), but we do know that the murder rate is flirting with an all-time high. In fact, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that we are 3 murders away from setting the record. It doesn't look like this $1.2 million was well spent.
It seems odd that someone who has devoted his adult life to fighting crime talked about the need to better target crime hotspots and to listen to the citizens more closely. Our elected officials, who runs council on a part-time basis, think they know better, and would rather throw money at the problem, and show up for photo ops touting how through their leadership telling people that their leadership is making Cincinnati safer.
posted by CincinnatiLibertarian at 3:42 PM
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