October 10, Do the Math
Let me get this straight.
Murder is up 4%.
Gunshots are up 12%.
Robberies are up 8%.
But somehow, the O'Malley admistration says crime is down by 3% and violent crime by 6%.
It seems that means that common assault (like, a fistfight or a tussle) is down sharply. And burglary and theft from auto as well, because there's nothing really left to account for the gap. But those are precisely the incident types which we'd expect victims in crime-plagued neighborhoods to avoid reporting when the overburdened police do little to nothing to help them. So, those crimes are probably up, not down. The inclination to report them is likely what's decreasing here. It's what happens when officers refuse to take incident reports under pressure from O'Malley's brainchild, CitiStat. The best way to get crime stats down is... to discourage victims from reporting them.
That means crime is up. Probably a lot.
Murder is up 4%.
Gunshots are up 12%.
Robberies are up 8%.
But somehow, the O'Malley admistration says crime is down by 3% and violent crime by 6%.
It seems that means that common assault (like, a fistfight or a tussle) is down sharply. And burglary and theft from auto as well, because there's nothing really left to account for the gap. But those are precisely the incident types which we'd expect victims in crime-plagued neighborhoods to avoid reporting when the overburdened police do little to nothing to help them. So, those crimes are probably up, not down. The inclination to report them is likely what's decreasing here. It's what happens when officers refuse to take incident reports under pressure from O'Malley's brainchild, CitiStat. The best way to get crime stats down is... to discourage victims from reporting them.
That means crime is up. Probably a lot.
posted by John Galt at 12:24 AM
2 Comments:
Sir Galt,
Clearly you do not appreciate the sheer genius and brilliant tactics of the O'Malley administration. After all, crime is only violent when someone dies... but wait, that's up too!
You think Sheila Dixon could do any better?
Personally, I'm of the thought that they need to enlist a new commissioner, and that the top post should be an elected position, not one that answers to the Mayor. Since this effects the people more than Hizzoner's aspirations to become president one day (its so nice to see he's kept his childhood dream), the people should be able to hold a commissioner accountable.
Well, until fairly recently, the Commissioner of Police was appointed by the Governor, not the Mayor.
A problem with having a Mayor elected directly is that he gets swept up in the electoral cycle with pressure to "not arrest my son". That's not so good.
Personally, i'd like to see the Police Department taken out of Baltimore City Government and established as a separate special-purpose government, which levies its own taxes. In fact, what you might do is to break the city down into about 12 such districts, which operate certain central facilities jointly, but whose budgets are determined locally by the taxpayers.
The nominations to District Commander/Commish. would probably come from the Governor, but would be ratified locally.
Post a Comment
<< Home