The Major Flaw in Comparative Crime Rates
The Major Flaw in Comparative Crime Rates
If technology is the game changer vendors claim, this ought to be considered when we do our annual statistics.
NEW TECHNOLOGY IS A GAME CHANGER
The last vendor demonstration of my career was a presentation by Fusus, an amazing innovative startup, who offered a video integration solution that provides community wide benefits. Their system brought public safety access to existing video systems in homes, stores, hospitals, venues, and schools. I haven’t received a dime from them, and probably never will as I use them only as the perfect example of new technology that has emerged recently and genuinely enhances public safety.
LAW ENFORCEMENT HAS GAINED GROUND
In the past forty years many other tools have emerged, and key forensic evidence has been adopted by the courts. Friends of mine introduced the first case of DNA accepted in United States courts shortly before my joining the agency.
Law enforcement enjoyed huge gains in obtaining long awaited perks and along with them crime fighting tools. Many large agencies moved to 12-hour shifts and take-home vehicles. Weapons were improved with many staff outfitted with updated shotguns and semi-automatic rifles. Supervisors and commanders were issued SAGE less-lethal arms for high-risk situations.
Widespread adoption of Mobile Computer Terminals (MCT) in patrol vehicles began in 1999 and continued into 2000 with a connection speed of about 14kps (super slow.) Many other large agencies already had Mobile Data Terminals that connected directly to agency mainframe and computer-aided-dispatch systems, but widespread use of a Windows based system was a game changer for many agencies.
Other technology introduced to first responders included field fingerprint readers, vehicle based automated license plate readers, LOJACK, and via MCTs, immediate access to NCIC with the ability to transfer license data directly to citations and accident reports. MCTs also furnish the ability to complete incident and case reporting from the field and move that data to warrant applications and arrest affidavits. Body cameras will get their own article soon.
TECHNOLOGY HAS SUCCEEDED AGAINST CRIME
Local governments invested in video surveillance networks monitoring selected areas. The world of consumer technology advanced rapidly with the smartphone entering the marketplace in 2007 and ‘find my device’ successes off the charts. The presence of video doorbells everywhere and static LPRs are continually making headlines with crimes that would not be solved without the assist. Video from citizens taken by their smartphones solves cases every day.
CRIMINALS DO NOT HAVE THE ADVANTAGE: COPS DO!
There is an argument that every time the police figure out how to address one type of crime, the criminals find another way to defeat it. A ‘build a better mousetrap’ scenario and somehow a comical race exists between the two sides. Some perceive it is just a big game of Whack-a-Mole. This is unfounded in most cases. On the United States southern border where remote surveillance sites are regularly attacked by the cartels it is literally a Mad Magazine Spy Vs. Spy scenario that spans tactics from paintballs to firebombs.
CRIME HAS INCREASED BEYOND THE REPORTED NUMBERS
Most crime, local crime that matters to communities being policed, fall inside the categories of the old Uniform Crime Reporting system and now the National Incident Based Crime Reporting System. When we consider how murders, robberies, serious assaults and other acts concerning former Part One crimes are at 2008 levels or higher, we must recognize, in light of advances in policing, that the net result is a seriously unreported increase in net crimes.
Criminals did not become more advanced. Any advancement they made was pitiful compared to the deluge of new technology and resources to law enforcement. For example, while providing administrative support to the homicide squad, in 2001 cell phone tracking data was irrelevant in almost all cases but essential in absolutely all our 2004 cases. They’re not countering law enforcement with investment or sophistication. Criminals aren’t throwing rockets together here. They’re not even using the blunt force approach used by the Colombian cartels in the early 1980s by sending too many shipping containers to search. There is only the rare occasion where a local crime is documented with the foresight and planning to overcome security barriers and seriously evade apprehension and justice. While there are extremely rare cases that have occurred, they prove the rule and are still being discussed 50 years later.
Our brave new world has also birthed new crime categories in cyber, fraud, exploitation, stalking and extortion, and those crimes are terrible and being addressed. Law enforcement is rapidly learning how to preserve evidence and prosecute those cases, even those happening across the globe.
NEED TO RETURN TO THE FUNDAMENTALS OF POLICING
The nuts and bolts of crime, the reality, is virtually no home invasion robberies are random, guns are found with drugs and on people with a legal restriction on possessing firearms, and people are mainly getting shot by people they know. Supervised offenders have a greater than 50% chance of being in violation when checked on by a probation officer.
The Coronavirus pandemic created a major disruption in training new officers. While there is no perfect way to assess this in a general statement, I hope it is fair to say that during that period overall there were less interactions with reported suspicious person, less self-initiated contacts and fewer traffic stops.
Getting new officers introduced to the basics is absolutely essential. To be continued…
I agree, Ronald. Unfortunately, as you wrote about, and know from experience, technology, tactics, and training for the police officers does nothing to address the lack of respect for breaking the social contract people engage in routinely nowadays. It used to be that people understood there was a tenuous balance between law and order. Criminals used to except the fact that they would break the law and that police would try to apprehend them. There were certain lines that would not be crossed. You never used to hear about kids pulling out guns and shooting at police officers after a convenience store shoplifting.
However, the breakdown in morality that we’ve seen take place over the last six years in our country is giving us insight into reaping what we sow, or more to the point, what we didn’t sow. Without any regard for morality, or adherence to the cultural standard of a social contract between good and evil, I fear it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
But that does not abdicate the role police officers must absolutely play in today’s world! I think an interesting take on your article would be to look at the recruitment numbers. Recruitment in the Southwestern United States is on the rise! When I teach, I am constantly amazed at people sign up in their early 30s for what will be at least a 25 year career before retirement. What a blessing that men and women still exist like that! Thank you for your article, which is on point as usual!