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
4 Comments:
The $1.2 million spent on extra police duty during the Summer did work, largely in part to the communities who sent representation to the Community-Police meetings with good, solid information.
Crime dropped dramatically in many of the neighborhoods. The community of Northside was a big winner at dropping the crime statistics because of the outstanding volunteer residents who aren't afraid of the baggy-pants thugs.
Since this Summer initiative, crime is consistently dropping in several communities. The thugs are going to other areas where the folks continue to bitch & moan, rather than get up off their dead asses & help alleviate the situation.
You didn't do much research into this entire program at all. I'd rather see my tax dollars "thrown" into an initiative such as this, as I can see it working.
It did a lot more good than wasting money on the joke social programs that are supposed to help the no loads.
$1.2 million dollars doesn't get you 1.2 million in policing. This went to overtime or time and a half/double time. So maybe you get $800,000 worth of policing at best.
It was citizen involement that improved those areas, not the money.
Social programs aren't always bad. We have to prevent crime before it happens and that means giving people education and oppurtunities to get jobs with living wages.
I did not say anything about those programs you speak of. In fact, Lt Rahtz said that those programs were the answer. Programs such as Citizens on Patrol, CPOP (which is probably the biggest program to help out Northside), and Citizens Police Academy are all very inexpensive programs, and did not receive a dime of the $1.2 million that I spoke of. All that $1.2 million was spent on was more patrols (mainly biking and foot patrols), and it was only for the summer.
The point I was trying to make was that our professional crime fighters said that the answer was one thing (one thing that does not cost a lot of money), but the politicians (in an attempt to look they are doing something good) decided to do something else; some thing that the head of the police academy said would not work very well.
The most successful program in Northside is their Northside Court Watch effort. They are the ones who are cleaning up in cooperation with the police. You ask anyone in the ranks of CPD. That community has a top notch Citizens on Patrol program & their CPOP is outstanding, but the Northside Court Watch has been the monster success since day one. The volunteers running this program have had to withstand criticism from "soft hearts" & pro-narcotics people in the community, along with threats & racial slurs of the sidewalk slugs & their "family" members. Still, they continue to prevail.
You cannot expect an initiative to succeed without cooperation of residents. It is fruitless to expect the police to launch programs without clear info from neighborhood volunteers. Cops have to work with people who can tell them where the pains in the asses are hanging out or hiding out.
Regardless of how much was allotted & spent, many communities received their money's worth & saw first hand their tax dollars at work.
Folks in Avondale were cheering on the sidewalks this Summer when plainclothes officers would roll up in a beater & sting the baggy-pants no-loads. They'd tell the cops to go down the street & haul off the next batch.
That's what makes program launches successful & people don't mind paying the money if they are going to see something, even if it's a little bit. Anything to clean out the streets.
Joke social programs aren't always bad, however, those who are Court ordered into these programs don't take them seriously & therefore, will become repeat offenders. This behavior & mindset is what destroys neighborhoods.
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