Do you think we have Too Much Law Enforcement or not enough?

Question

Just curious on your thoughts. In our town we have lost 18% of our population in the past 8 years yet the Police force has increased by 5 new officers.
I noticed when I got back to the office today that there were 2 police cars pulled behind the school next to our building, they were parked under a tree drinking coffee, when I left at 3 pm..they were still there, same guys laughing & joking around (must be nice) I live 11 miles away, when leaving the office complex I passed two other city cops in cars, when I got on a short trip on the Highway (3 miles) I saw a State cop doing radar and less than a 1/2 mile away a county sheriff car doing radar on the other side. With private sector job loss at all time highs in our state & city and losing people by the thousands why would they increase public severants, crime is down in our State 9% & 7% in our city. I know Police don't prevent crimes...they react to them so they don't make the rates go down.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

TrueBlue...it does sound like there in California you do need more! Good work BTW!

Answer 1

Perhaps that's true where you live, but on my department, there are approximately 10,000 sworn officers for a city of over 4 million. They are spread so thin, that often there isn't time for proactive police work, all they do is run from service call to service call.
So in my opinion, there are not enough officers.

Answer 2

i think that an increase in police officers would be a good thing. if there is an increase in police officers then the prevention of crime will go even lower than it is now. i forgett what year it was but there was a big shot out that involved the california highway patrol l.a.pd and several other police departments in the area. two crooks had just done a big hold up in a bank and they were getting away when police arrived at the scene. the two guys were wearing body armer and when police would shoot them the bullits would just bounce off. they eventually shot both of them dead. many officers were wounded in that shot out. so after that the chp changed there policy of have weapons in the patrol car. they also increase their patrol units to prevent another crime like the one that wounded so many officers. so ya i think that there should be more officers out on the road. i've seen first hand how lawenforcement works.

Answer 3

Here is the problem with law enforcement.

We generally have 4-5 officers on at a time 3-4 plus 1 sergeant (not counting, captains, the chief, detectives at HQ or people working grants).

Some days nothing might be going on and everyone is just sort of doing their own thing. Stopping cars, talking to kids, drinking coffee (we get breaks too), helping detectives with followups, doing their own investigations, catching up on stuff ect.

Other days we might be blacked out (everyone is busy, no activity other then answering calls) and we have to sometimes ask for help from the county or a nearby city just to make sure everyone has backup when needed. I've had to drop what I was doing on minor calls before and head to emergencies.

So some days you might see cops doing nothing. Other days or times, it is completely busy.

If you had to ask me. I would like another officer per shift here. So I don't think there is too much law enforcement in the area.

As for being reactive. I catch plenty of criminals on car stops or people in the middle of commiting a crime.

*edited* Sorry I typed that fast and had a few typos. I think I fixed them all.

Answer 4

Never enough, when I start my shift every day I have 5-6 calls waiting for me when I log on. Some days I go call to call, and never have a chance to make a traffic stop or any follow-up investigations.

One to two more officers on shift would solve this problem. Police do prevent crimes, I've both prevented and interrupted crimes. There are proven criminology studies that show the presence of police can prevent crime. Many years back in the city of Pasadena, they had a massive drug problem in a particular area. People were driving in from out of the area to buy dope. Solution? Take their motor unit (about 15 officers at the time) and have them saturate the area. No one likes getting a ticket. Within 2 weeks they noticed a 75% decrease in narcotic related crime.

More officers means more officers able to go to calls, and even more available not on calls that can make traffic stops, investigate suspicious activity, etc.

We always need more...

Answer 5

Thats kind of a tough question. Doesn't it kind of depend on your persective? Anyways...i'm a cop and I work mostly with teens. I have had some training on gang related issues. A good source of info and reference material may be found at OJDP. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Part of the difficulty law enforcement has in dealing with gangs is that they are difficult to infiltrate. Due to the fear and intimidation some gangs inspire people are unwilling to provide information against gang members. The make up and structure of gangs can also be difficult for untrained officers to recognize. Three or four kids committing various property crimes might seem like a group of friends acting like punks or it may be a sub-group of a larger gang. I think the biggest difficulty facing law enforcement is recognizing when gangs are operating in their community. Once we figure out I think we do about all we can legally to stamp it out. Good Luck.

Answer 6

There are not enough cops where I live (CA). Agencies are always begging for applicants. I know I have called the police before and although it was urgent (yet not an emergency) I've had to wait for 20 min. for service. It's because of cut-backs in funding and because a lot of people don't want to be officers anymore since there is no respect for the authority of the position.

Answer 7

I believe there are too many laws, AND too much *federal* law enforcement and too many federal law enforcement agencies. The federal government for some reason has probably a hundred different federal security/law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement should be mainly a state issue. With the exception of interstate crimes and matters of national security. The federal government is waaaay too big. This includes federal LE.

I believe states should legalize victimless crimes such as prostitution and marijuana use, regulate and tax them, and use the extra police resources to investigate cold cases and felony crimes. The resources being dedicated to prostitution and marijuana stings, when the prostitutes keep on prostituting and the dope users keep smokin, is ridiculous. Our jails are overcrowded with these nonviolent "offenders."

Answer 8

We don't have enough. It's pretty obvious, considering most departments are lowering the required minimum age to join, starting to become more flexible on a candidate's background, offering better benefits, etc.

The two cops you referred to were probably just in the same area on coincidence. They didn't necessarily see each other when they parked to run radar, so they were just in the same area at the same time at random.

Answer 9

It depends on the days. I work for a small agency that has only one Officer on at a time. I have days where I'm chasing calls all over and then I have days where nothing is going on. An extra Officer on would help quite a bit for me!

Answer 10

Too many laws, not enough enforcement. The number of officers you have has ZERO relationship to the level of enforcement. Based on you question, you have no where near enough information to guess if you have the 'correct' amount of officers. BTW, if you see officers everywhere you look, that alone DOES reduce crime.