Why do the police always patrol the minority neighborhoods more than the white nieghborhoods?

Question

Is it because the police R really that racist or just because most of the really bad crimes just happen there for certain reason?.

Answer 1

Police saturate the areas where there is crime. Unfortunately high crime areas are usually lower income areas. A lot of the time lower income areas are minority neighborhoods.

When there is a rash of break ins or other crimes in some nice upper middle class neighborhood you will see a lot of cops there for a while too.

Trust me, we would be happier driving around some nice "wonder Years" looking middle class neighborhood than crackville, but we have a job to do.

Answer 2

Your question implies that police patrols are unwanted intrusions into peoples lives. Unfortunately, there are areas where people share your attitude. It's those areas where crime is able to flourish, because the police are only called after the fact.

I remember that in my old, predominantly white neighborhood, we had a problem with one neighbor (a sporting/hunting club) renting their property for parties that often got out of hand. It was difficult to get the police to respond the way we would have liked, but we were eventually able to shut down the parties. If we had taken your attitude, the parties would have continued until some one was killed. Who would have been to blame for that? Certainly not the police.

Answer 3

Do you know that happens always as a fact, or is that just your opinion? As a previous dispatcher, our city was split into 3 zones. We had one officer per zone, plus a Sgt and Lt who had free roam. That's how calls were dispatched and answered. As our department grew, we had 1 unit for each zone, plus a unit roving in the north of town (which covers all of zone 1 and half of zone 2), and a unit roving south of town (half of zone 2 and all of zone 3). Bad stuff happened all over town, not necessarily in one certain neighborhood. Even the nice neighborhoods with expensive homes have problems. I can and do agree if a department has more problems in a certain area and they have the extra manpower, then they should beef up patrol in that area. It only helps the citizens bc it lowers response times for units responding from other areas.

Answer 4

Having lived in a minority neighborhood for a while, I can tell you it's because that's where most of the crime and violence happens.

I was the victim of a crime three times in the 6 months I lived in that neighborhood, vs. 3 times in the 28 years since then.

Answer 5

The truth is that the police don't patrol just one type of neighborhood,they patrol the whole city but yes for whatever reason the police patrol the black neighborhood a little more than the rest of the city because the black neighborhood has more violence going on.

Answer 6

I have more fun arresting crack heads and people with warrants than talking to people about BMW's or their landscaping. Although I would get paid the same... Maybe the police should live up to the expectations of the citizens and do nothing. Maybe we should let crime take place. Maybe we should be nice to everybody. Think about it. We go where the crime is.

Answer 7

We will concentrate our most amount of officers in the area with the highest crime. weather it happens to be in a black neighborhood or a white, or Latino, or whatever. Its just common sense.

Answer 8

Police patrols are concentrated in areas with a higher number of reported crimes.

Answer 9

I have to explain to folks at least once a night. They ask why I'm never in their neighborhood or why do they always see me in the bad areas.

I tell them its the old adage, "Squeaky wheel gets the oil."

If there are not calls for service or complaints coming in, I have to assume that the criminals are over in the crappy neighborhoods where I spend most of my time.

Answer 10

Actually, it's because rich people have more influence with city hall. If an officer decided to stop and hassle a rich guy for no reason, he might find himself writing traffic tickets in Death Valley; but if he shakes down a poor guy, not much happens to him. It's just self preservation.