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Jan 9, 2024

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I. When crime is rampant in your neighborhood, the police will help, but will adding more police help deter the crime from even happening? A. Police are a symbol that helps fight crime. When crime is high, we can deter it by using that symbol to stop the crimes before they happen. However, the question is, will increasing the number of police patrols really make a difference? B. Thesis - According to a recent study, it was found that “… a 10% decrease in police presence at that location results in a 7% increase in crime.” (Weisburd, 2021) The study shows that by reducing police presence crimes, rates will increase. Although cops are prone to bias and, as such, are not perfect, which is why this paper will explore whether adding more police will deter crime in my residential neighborhood. II. Reasons that Support the Thesis Statement A. Police presence can help deter crime from their presence, and well-thought-out patrol routes will help target high-crime areas. 1. There have been many studies into whether there is a direct link between the amount of police on patrols and crime. In the study done in 2021, it was found that from an economic perspective, there was no proof in this natural experiment that more police presence causes reported crime rates to decline (M Dau et al., 2021). 2. This indicates that reported crime is not affected, but the crime that is not reported may still be spotted during a patrol or even prevented by the police presence. 3. Police act as a symbol of general deterrence. At the same time, they enforce the law, according to deterrence theory, by elevating either the risk (general deterrence) of being caught in the act or the severity (specific deterrence) of punitive action, which deters offenders from committing a criminal act as expected (M Dau et al., 2021). B. Who will pay for the extra police? Taxpayers already fit the bill for the current police salary; adding extra police puts a higher burden on the taxpayers. 4. Fines and citations will help supplement some of the fees by adding more police. Still, ultimately, taxpayers will pay for the extra police. Still, extra police equal extra protection. Using GPS tracking, we can track police on their beats and ensure they are following the patrol and/or working. 5. GPS tracking of police activities allows for precise measurement of presence, and using big data analyses can shed new light on conventional assumptions about police work. Previous research has shown that not all data types allow for collecting information on police presence (M Dau et al., 2021). This will help taxpayers know that their money is being used for the benefit of the

community. Keeping transparency with taxpayers will help them feel more at ease. C. Businesses will benefit from more police activity, making these businesses safer and thus more able to serve customers. 6. In neighborhoods with high crime activity, the simple luxuries of ordering a pizza are an issue. Criminals learn from their past actions, which causes them to become innovative and create new schemes and scams to earn a living. 7. For instance, a local incident in Harford County, MD, made local businesses feel unsafe. After getting a call for a fake order, a pizza delivery driver was robbed and killed in a nearby neighborhood after being shot by two men as he arrived to deliver the pizza (Harford County Sheriff’s Office, 2022). There have also been several other local robberies that resulted from fake delivery calls. D. In the study done in 2021, it was found that from an economic perspective, there was no proof in this natural experiment that more police presence causes reported crime rates to decline (M Dau et al., 2021). 8. The critical statement lies in the wording of reported crimes. The study did not know that crime was improved by the presence of police in the number of reported crimes. However, if a person were going to call and report a crime, they would not need to report it if a cop was already present. 9. That means that the cops' presence will not affect the number of reported crimes but can reduce a person's waiting time. Cops are likelier to be near a call if they are already patrolling the high-crime areas. Also, police presence may deter the need to report a crime because the police may already be in the neighborhood, preventing future crimes from happening. E. By increasing police presence, police can better assist the public because they are patrolling in high crime areas, and response times for calls should be faster. 10. Not every stop will result in an arrest, so to correctly measure, we must count all calls, not just ones that lead to a successful conviction or an arrest. A study was done on New York's stop-and-frisk policy to see the results of increasing police presence. 11. By the end of 2012, 6-7% of recorded stops resulted in an arrest, and another 5-6% in summonses (Rosenfeld & Fornango, 2017). Just 0.10% of stops in New York between 2009 and 2012 resulted in a conviction for a violent crime; nearly half of those arrested were either not prosecuted, had their cases dismissed, were adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, or were found not guilty (Schneiderman, 2013, p. 3) (Rosenfeld & Fornango, 2017). Critics claimed that the Terry standard of reasonable suspicion was not met in a

significant portion of the stops reported by the NYPD due to the low yield of arrests and prosecutions from SQFs because "nearly nine out of ten stopped- and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent" (New York Civil Liberties Union, 2014) (Rosenfeld & Fornango, 2017). F. Police are humans with special training in reacting to situations with a cool head and performing a judgment call in certain situations. All humans suffer from natural forms of bias and prejudices built into our values. 12. Maryland has an estimated population of just over 6 million people as of 2019, which is slightly more diverse by race alone than the entire U.S. population (27.5% of whom identify as non-White or multiracial in Maryland versus 44.5% nationally) (Bailey, 2021). Black or African American people make up the most significant proportion of the non-White population in both the State and the country, with 29.9% of the State population identifying solely as such and another 1.4% identifying as belonging to more than one race, including Black or African American (Bailey, 2021). 13. 31 civilian deaths involving the police occurred in 2019, involving 62 police officers in total, of which 18 were deemed homicides by the authorities (Governor's Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services (GOCPYVS), 2020) (Bailey, 2021). In other words, over half, or 56%, of the fatal shootings were racial and ethnic minorities. Of the officers involved in these deaths, 84% were White, 15% were Black, and 2% were Hispanic or Latinx. Of these 18 civilians, 50% were African American, 44% were White, and 6% were Hispanic or Latinx (Bailey, 2021). According to a recent book, “The number of African American and Latinx people in American jails and prisons today exceeds the entire populations of some African, Eastern European, and Caribbean countries.” (Muhammad, 2019, p. xii) This means that individuals who are minorities will often be unfairly targeted. G. Businesses are safer with increased police presence, encouraging consumers to shop more, benefiting both long-term. 14. We have already established that with more police presence, we have safer neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with more crime have more theft, which comes in two forms. Theft from a business and theft from an average citizen. Increasing patrols will give police a chance to patrol neighborhoods and possibly stop crime in the process of it accruing. 15. Police can spot a criminal climbing into a window that they find suspicious and decide to investigate. This prevents a greater crime of theft from occurring. Police will also be able to respond to a convenience store robbery because their patrol had two cars precisely 2 miles away in each direction. This means patrols can respond nearly instantly if the cops are positioned further away from hot spot areas.

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