Just a few years ago, Grits highlighted reports that police shootings had increased over the course of the prior decade. Now, the Texas Justice Initiative analyzed police shooting reports and found that they continued to rise from calendar-years 2016 through 2019.
All of this is happening during a period when traffic enforcement has plummeted compared to not very long ago. The number of fine-only criminal cases filed in municipal courts (Class C misdemeanors) statewide has dropped to well below 1990 levels, when Texas' population was 17 million compared to 30 million now. (See p. 20 of the latest OCA Statistical report.) Overall arrests statewide peaked in 2009 and have declined since then.
Couple these reduced contacts with the public with crime drops across the board since the '90s and the growth of Texas' police force to 80,000 officers, their numbers swelling every day, and the overall picture emerges over the last three decades that ever-more officers are responding to less and less crime.
What do cops do instead? A recent analysis of Austin patrol calls found that 2/3 of officer time was spent responding to non-crimes, often because there was no one else available.
This is not inevitable just because it's how it happens now. When Austin decided to go one year without a police academy, it did so in the context of these long-term trends, with an eye toward more efficient use of its police force. Maybe they'll succeed, maybe not. But this sort of large-scale government waste rooted in mission creep is generally something conservatives criticize. It's an oddity to me that evaluating and then cutting the police budget has become this partisan heresy conservatives are supposed to abhor.
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13 comments:
Tension keeps rising as the country becomes more divided https://faircases.com/
A lot of Cops feel like they are superior to the population There have been so many wrongs committed by the cops, they are considered "criminals with badges" and most of the time they get away with just a slap on the wrist, if that. The increase incidents of police shootings has to do with more people carrying guns and fearing for their lives, against the cops
Just curious, Scott, how many times do officers get shot at and has that statistic gone up since May?
@SMS, I can't speak to recent months. The national Law Enforcement Memorial releases an annual number that I usually go by. But in general, being a police officer is more dangerous than the average job, but safer than people like garbage workers, farmers, everyone on a construction site, truck drivers, etc.. I have no reason to expect 2020 will be much different.
@Grits, it is intellectually dishonest to compare non-law enforcement work place injury rates to law enforcement, and allege it is more dangerous to be a farmer or garbage worker. Heuristicly. the likelihood of being shot, stabbed or assaulted is much more likely for a cop, than a farmer or garbage worker. @SMS makes a great point, after cops being shot at more now, than in previous years? Also, don't you think the recent release of prison inmates (bc of covid) will impact police contacts? I'd imagine that many of those inmates will likely recidivate.
Unknown and Grits,
It is not dishonest to compare fatality stats between professions as how you die has little bearing to the final outcome - you're still six feet under whether by an auto accident or a gunshot. By the way, cops almost always quote the fatality rate without mentioning that almost half, for example, were accidental deaths (like auto accidents - just like cab drivers or truckers!). Not to mention cops aren't the only ones killed by gunfire. Convenience store clerks have also been up there, historically.
Girts,
What the stats don't seem to keep track off is the officers that survive a police shooting, whether due to vests or to medical care. I would suggest that those stats are as important as actual fatalities for they feed the perception of danger among all officers. Wonder if you have ever seen any documentation regarding officers shot at or almost knifed? The stats, as an aside, also never mention the number of times an officer has attempted to shoot a suspect but missed. Those attempts are almost as important as their "successes" for they are still an attempted homicide of a "civilian."
@7:10, the TJI study includes some data on that, but only for shootings. Officers shot are twice as likely to survive as regular folks.
@6:52, my comments about crime and citizen contacts declining is based on reported data. If you want to speculate on things no one has reported, you're wasting everyone's time. Farmers,fishermen, garbage workers, etc., get injured on the job, too. Their jobs are empirically less safe than police. ("They put their lives on the line every day.") I'm surprised you don't think that's a good thing. I'd think you'd want officers to be safe.
Also, Texas didn't release prisoners because of COVID. In fact, hundreds were kept incarcerated longer. You're telling lies and complaining about things that didn't happen.
You keep imagining that, let the rest of us know when your fantasies come true.
You keep making negative comments about conservatives. The fact is that liberal Democrats run the cities where police keep killing black men and until you liberals understand that you, not conservatives, are the problem the situation will never change. Liberals are the most bigoted and intolerant people in this country. Austin, Houston, Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, New York are run by liberal Democrats and have been for generations. If they liberals had wanted to reduce police brutality, they could have but they haven't. You liberals are the problem.
To Anonymous 07:42:00,
Words escape me...allI can say is that you are truly an idiot.
So I had to go back and search for the word conservative...
"But this sort of large-scale government waste rooted in mission creep is generally something conservatives criticize."
So am I to understand you support centralizing government power and mission creep? November is coming,I need to decide who I support.
No, 7:37, I'm for dismantling the police bureaucracy and scaling back its mission. Who you vote for in November is a personal matter. Choose wisely.
@7:42, I'm not making negative comments about conservatives. I'm calling on self-avowed conservatives to govern based on conservative values. That's not what was happening at that Fort Worth press conference.
I know you don't care but police shootings/use of force cannot be understood troug the use of an Excel program. Every shooting or use of force has to be examined individually and determined to be justified or unjustified. You cannot base this on the race of the people involved, the type of call it all started over, or the phase of the moon. It has to be considered based on law and policy applied to the situation known to the officer at the time it was occurring. You are not doing that, you are dredging up slavery to try to bolster your position, it is a dishonest and pathetic attempt to support your position. No different to talking about the lack of traffic stops compared to the population growth which you documented numbers but just said the police numbers swelled to 80,000 and didn't mention the numbers. Have the police numbers matched the population growth? Do the police do all these non-law enforcement dutys because they are ignoring the laws being broken or are they stretched so thin because of responding to non-LE calls, and those duties suffer?
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