When the Department of Public Safety shifted its deployments to the border as part of "Operation Strong Safety," it measurably reduced DPS enforcement in the rest of the state, resulting in fewer citations and warnings issued statewide and corresponded to a period when traffic accidents increased. Further, arrests by DPS and especially the Texas Rangers plummeted in counties outside the border region. Check out discussions of the various data from three MSM outlets:
This was always, obviously true - troopers displaced from their home beats to the border aren't policing the state's interior, where most of the traffic and crime is. But it's good to see it documented with numbers, even if pols quoted in the stories - particularly in the Times - seemed to be in flat-out denial.
The Times editorial and the TM piece by R.G. Ratcliffe ably parse the meaning underlying the new data so I won't replicate their work: Check out the above links for more detail.
MORE: From the Texas Tribune, "
Lawmaker questions what DPS is achieving on the border."
Never fear, the DPS is currently in the midst of a hiring frenzy and will increase the number of troopers exponentially during the next year so that politicians can continue to play the immigrant game: http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/texas-news/2015/03/09/dps-is-hiring-small-border-police-departments-suffer/24677641/
ReplyDeleteYour request for an expanded Police State will be granted soon. Enjoy!
I think what TxDPS is doing is currently hiring hundreds of officers from our area here in Hidalgo County, Starr and Cameron and send the officers they've taken from other parts of the state back. But once this whole fiasco is really over, now you have hundreds of unemployed officers and then when they attempt to go back to their local law enforcement job, they've been replaced. What a waste.
ReplyDeleteWhy have a surge in the first place? The DPS has no business on the border.
ReplyDeleteI dispute the basic premise -- a drop in arrests is not a sign of ineffective policing. It's not a sign of anything but a drop in arrests and citations.
ReplyDeleteCrime rates are the only measure that matter. This is straight from the Peelian Principles:
To recognize always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.
There won't be no unemployed troopers after this fiasco is over. They won't be laid off, just given a quota, which effectively puts them on commission, then they'll pay for themselves.
ReplyDeleteYep... Texas is building their own Berlin Wall. Dress DPS is some old Soviet - East German military uniforms and people will see we are just another police state. More police are not the answer to the War on Immigrants. Better human trafficking laws and enforcement of independent contractor status on worksites is the solution. Failed drug policies and a screwed up mental health system are another problem. People self medicate themselves for a reason and public mental health services are underfunded.
ReplyDeleteReforms.
First: Start by getting rid of the For-Profit health care system that drives up the cost of health services and keeps little money available for mental health treatment.
Secondly: Have the IRS enforce immigration violations by placing liens and levies on businesses that violate independent contractor status.
Third: Get rid of the criminal justice industrial complex. Fire all the Border Patrol Agents, lay off half of DPS, make use of private incarceration / private prisons illegal, and rehire those border patrol / DPS officers to work for the IRS enforcing independent contractor status / seizing illicit drug money.
Forth: Get rid of cash. Make crime easy to track and enforce it civilly. The Cartel would cease to exist if there was no financial incentive. The War on Drugs and the War on Immigrants would not exist if you erase the profits.