Does having more cops on the streets really help?

[Ugfugly]

I am curious on the statistics here. I read about cops who earn tens of thousands of dollars from overtime and would like to know what good it really does productivity wise?

How many crimes do cops really prevent? What is the criminal arrests to traffic citation ratio?

Let's delve even deeper and look at State police. What do those guys do besides hang around highways and give tickets?

Ok read up a little on the State police and it makes sense they handle criminal activity that happen across jurisdictions

 

[C. Lee]

You can't get an accurate number of the crimes that they prevent...because part of prevention is the criminal seeing a cop at a place and not committing a crime...

 

[The Question]

I am curious on the statistics here. I read about cops who earn tens of thousands of dollars from overtime and would like to know what good it really does productivity wise?

How many crimes do cops really prevent? What is the criminal arrests to traffic citation ratio?

Let's delve even deeper and look at State police. What do those guys do besides hang around highways and give tickets?

Ok read up a little on the State police and it makes sense they handle criminal activity that happen across jurisdictions

State Police are also usually responsible for criminal investigations in towns or cities that are too small to have it's own investigative department. NYC has it's own Detective Bureau, but if a triple homicide happens in the middle of west butt**** nowhere, odds are they'll call in the state police.

 

[Hound55]

You can't get an accurate number of the crimes that they prevent...because part of prevention is the criminal seeing a cop at a place and not committing a crime...

Yup, police presence as a deterrent.

This looks like a topic for me to steer clear of since I have some pretty strong political opinions on it and technically voicing them can get me in trouble.

 

[LOBO3315a]

If I were a criminal, and I was casing a place to rob, seeing the police rolling around (unless my intent was to go to jail) would deter me.

 

[Motown Marvel]

I am curious on the statistics here. I read about cops who earn tens of thousands of dollars from overtime and would like to know what good it really does productivity wise?

How many crimes do cops really prevent? What is the criminal arrests to traffic citation ratio?

Let's delve even deeper and look at State police. What do those guys do besides hang around highways and give tickets?

Ok read up a little on the State police and it makes sense they handle criminal activity that happen across jurisdictions

the alternative would be to have less cops on the streets. do you really think crime would go down if there were less cops on the streets?

 

[Ugfugly]

the alternative would be to have less cops on the streets. do you really think crime would go down if there were less cops on the streets?

Armed citizens

 

[The Question]

Armed citizens

And that doesn't have serious potential to go horribly wrong at all.

 

[Motown Marvel]

Armed citizens

fantastic. give me a gun, then we'll talk about your ideas. its gonna go great for you.

 

[Holiday]

the alternative would be to have less cops on the streets. do you really think crime would go down if there were less cops on the streets?

Reminds me of a story I read earlier this month about a rise in violence against police in Chicago, and how officers riding alone in squad cars were dubbed "rolling coffins".


http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/2690838-418/police-officer-gang-chicago-officers.html

 

[LOBO3315a]

fantastic. give me a gun, then we'll talk about your ideas. its gonna go great for you.

It will if he has a gun, too. You will be less likely to start shooting if everyone is equally armed. You never know who might be a better shot than you are.

 

[NHawk19]

Read this:

http://freakonomicsbook.com/freakonomics/about-freakonomics/

They did a case study about what effectively reduced the violent crime rate in the 1990's. Including adding officers, harsher prison sentences & Roe v. Wade.

Plus it's a really good read.

 

[Webley]

Does having more cops on the streets really help?

it all depends on what you are doing on the streets

 

[Ugfugly]

I am just really curious because it's budget time again and I hear talks about the Police unions and not getting raises or pay cuts etc. but one thing nobody seems to mention is the unlimited overtime police officers have and I would like to determine if manpower is really an issue or just better time/resource management

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I'm sure response time is quicker with increased presence.

but with too much presence you get a bunch of bored cops with nothing better to do than look for petty violations.

I'd like to be able to depend on outside support in case of an emergency but I don't want to live in a police state. It can be a slippery slope.

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

I'm sure response time is quicker with increased presence.

but with too much presence you get a bunch of bored cops with nothing better to do than look for petty violations.

I'd like to be able to depend on outside support in case of an emergency but I don't want to live in a police state. It can be a slippery slope.

 

[Hobgoblin]

The only thing that I remember from my economics class is a handy little bit of trivia about how having more cops can lead to an increase in crime. Lets say more police are put on the streets, which leads to more big drug busts. As the amount of drugs on the street decreases, the value of drugs already there goes up. (Supply and demand.) As the drugs are now more expensive, addicts are forced to commit more robberies/burglaries/etc to pay for them.

 

[Motown Marvel]

It will if he has a gun, too. You will be less likely to start shooting if everyone is equally armed. You never know who might be a better shot than you are.

yeah, sounds like a real s*** way to expect law and order to happen.

 

[The Question]

The only thing that I remember from my economics class is a handy little bit of trivia about how having more cops can lead to an increase in crime. Lets say more police are put on the streets, which leads to more big drug busts. As the amount of drugs on the street decreases, the value of drugs already there goes up. (Supply and demand.) As the drugs are now more expensive, addicts are forced to commit more robberies/burglaries/etc to pay for them.

Why wouldn't more cops on the street also prevent more thefts?

 

[The Question]

yeah, sounds like a real s*** way to expect law and order to happen.

And all you need to start a total bloodbath is one person who absolutely does not give a ****.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Why wouldn't more cops on the street also prevent more thefts?

I suppose it would in the end. I assume that the "robbery spree" would last a while until either 1) More drugs arrived and managed to get on the street or 2) The police turned their attention to the increase in money motivated crime.

 

[LOBO3315a]

yeah, sounds like a real s*** way to expect law and order to happen.

Mutual respect is all that keeps law and order in place to begin with.

And all you need to start a total bloodbath is one person who absolutely does not give a ****.

I'm thinking the numbers game would win out. 1 armed person vs 50 unarmed citizens would be a bloodbath. 1 armed person vs 50 armed citizens would be less of one (friendly fire not withstanding).

 

[Wolfwood]

Mutual respect is all that keeps law and order in place to begin with.



I'm thinking the numbers game would win out. 1 armed person vs 50 unarmed citizens would be a bloodbath. 1 armed person vs 50 armed citizens would be less of one (friendly fire not withstanding).

That's assuming the 50 armed people don't either a.) accidentally shoot the wrong person or b.) miss and hit some bystander. Plus if that one guy is a real crackshot and is in a good position, he's taking some of those people with him.

 

[Motown Marvel]

Mutual respect is all that keeps law and order in place to begin with.

this is true. but you dont get mutual respect through guns and fear.

 

[Paroxysm]

Send.....more.......cops.