Crime experts, police,
and government officials have been searching for the reason why violent crime
rates are ticking up again. Media outlets across the political spectrum have
covered the growing criticism of the federal government's reallocation of crime-fighting
money to anti-terror activities. Police are crucial to overall crime control,
and this shift in funding is disconcerting; however, in my opinion, the
coverage misses an important point: the best investment is crime prevention.
As noted
here recently , the increase in crime comes in the face of years of
decline. In its coverage, Fox
News noted that “[w]hile the post-Sept. 11 homeland security
effort has sought to make the nation a fortress against the threat of another
deadly terror attack, domestic violent crime is up for the second straight year
and critics say negligent [national] politicians are partly to blame.” The Washington
Post echoed this, citing figures about the reduction of federal
grants for crime fighting:
The Justice Department
inspector general's office has reported sharp declines in the number of FBI
agents and investigations dedicated to traditional crimes since the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. In addition, the International Association of Chiefs
of Police says that law enforcement programs at the Justice Department have
been cut by more than $2 billion since 2002 and that overall funding for such
programs has been reduced to levels of a decade ago.
Furthermore, there do
appear to be fewer sworn officers in many localities, although it is not clear
whether this has anything to do with federal funding. According to the Bureau
of Justice Statistics, the number of sworn personnel from local police
departments and sheriff’s offices was 708,022 in 2000. By 2003, it was down to
625,988, a drop of more than ten percent. This is an unfortunate reversal from
the trend of the 1990s when, according to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner,
“[t]he number of police officers per capita in the United States rose about 14
percent.” Levitt and Dubner credit 10 percent of the drop in crime in the 1990s
to the increased number of police. With fewer police on the streets and new
anti-terror responsibilities on their shoulders, one should only expect crime
to rise somewhat.
Police are incredibly
important to crime prevention and law enforcement. They alone cannot, however,
solve all crime problems. Citizens can prevent crime. By keeping doors locked
and lights on, paying attention to personal safety
, being aware of fraud and
identity theft , and keeping ourselves informed and aware, we can prevent
crime. We can effective in keeping safe—and helping keep our communities stay
safe—by joining Neighborhood Watch and
reading McGruff’s advice with our children. This is not to say that we shouldn’t urge better funding for
local law enforcement. However, I believe that while we’re critiquing our elected
officials, we must also look at ourselves and ask how we, as ordinary citizens,
can reduce crime, too.
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