(philly.com) “Over the last couple of months, mayoral candidates have suggested more police, more cameras on street corners, more offers of probation, stop-and-search procedures, and tougher punishments in the criminal justice system to address crime in Philadelphia.
But the citizens haven’t heard the whole story about what’s been driving the violence in our neighborhoods. They haven’t, for example, heard enough from antiviolence groups working the streets. Thus we are denied a true dialogue on the authentic causes of crime, and on programs and initiatives that could really help.
Consider:
Putting more police on the streets will not necessarily decrease the number of shootings.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, city police strength averaged 6,000, with a high of 8,000. During these years, homicides averaged 300 per year. In the 1980s, the Police Department ranged from below 6,000 to about 7,000. During those years, city murders averaged 350 per year. In 1990, the city saw its highest number of murders in one year: 503, in a city with 6,584 police. And through the rest of the decade, we were averaging 400 murders a year – when police presence was about 6,300, with a high in the year 2000 of 7,035. In 2002, the number of murders was at its lowest in 17 years: 288. Police strength was then at 6,903.
These numbers suggest that murder goes up and down, with no clear relation to the number of police we have on the streets. (more…)
Bilal Qayyum (the writer of this piece) is definitely on the right track. He brings up an excellent point that I am not hearing from any elected officials (I’m sure a few out there are talking about this, but it has not come to the mainstream table of discussion). This is why I tend to roll my eyes anytime I hear someone preach about how we need more police officers. While that may be true in some cases, the majority of the problem starts with us.
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April 20th, 2007 at 9:40 am
The more police argument is kind of like the “schools need more money†arguments that are always being talked about. I am sure that a lot of cities need more cops, but a lot of cities need more cooperation for its citizens. A lot of cities need better/more skilled cops instead of more cops. They might need to raise police pay.
A lot of crime is youth crime which means that we need more accountability from parents. I can remember my mom wanting to know everywhere I went and who was going to be there.
I also don’t like the idea of street camera. They just don’t make me feel right. It’s too much of a “big brother†type thing, but I can see where the city is getting desperate.