More cops, less crime

In 2005, New York City, with a population of approximately 8 million, had 539 murders. Washington, DC, with a population of 600,000, had 195.

There are a lot of explanations one could offer for this, but one of the best ones is the prevalence in New York of beat cops. DC actually has more cops per citizen--one for every 153 citizens, versus one for every 210 in New York. But after almost a year in DC, I've still never seen a cop walking on the street. I see them frequently-ish in their patrol cars, but almost never walking around among the population.

To be fair, DC is less dense, so it's harder to patrol than New York--but New York had patrolmen long before it had skyscrapers. And increasing the number of police on the street is among the most effective ways to reduce crime--unsurprising, since even people with very poor impulse control are able to keep from committing crimes when there's a policeman standing right there.

The good news is, DC may be changing its policy. In the wake of a particularly bloody weekend, DCist reports that the city is putting more cops on the beat. The local blog spotted a beat cop a mere three blocks from my house -- on a weekday.

Comments

I've always thought that walking a beat would be fun, but I like walking. Perhaps after a year of walking a beat, I'd be done with it.

Posted by Klug | October 3, 2007 1:04 PM

DC talks about more beat cops after every particularly bloody weekend. Don't get your hopes up.

Posted by COD | October 3, 2007 2:08 PM

I think the gross incompetence of the DC police is to blame as well. Thanks to the legacy of the policies of Marion Barry the police force is poorly trained, corrupt, and bloated. What's worse is that no one is willing to do anything about it. Every police chief they get promises to use 'new' tactics, like more cops walking beats, and inevitably nothing changes.

Another factor is the terrible relations between the black population of DC and the police. There is no cooperation, which is why no crimes ever get solved.

My mom went the funeral of her co-worker's two sons who were murdered during a night out. She said the mother was quite upset to learn through the grapevine that her sons' murderers were at the funeral, but no one would go to the police and tell them who they were. The woman ended up taking her younger children and moving to North Carolina.

Posted by Christina | October 3, 2007 2:13 PM

I've been among those congratulating DC for encouraging the growth and gentrification of NW DC outside of Georgetown, but my foreign friends are the ones that remind me of the state of much of SE and NE DC -- especially across the Anacostia River. That the capital of the richest country on Earth can have such squalor can be held up as an example of the freedoms we can exercise to make something of our lives or hold onto past grievances, but it also suggests a sort of willful ignorance on the part of the leadership.
Even those that love DC agree that the education system and police rank far below the top spot. Yes, all urban areas have issues but DC is our damn capital and should be a model for experimentation and excellence simply because it is the capital. There's no lack of educated citizenry, but the country has come to expect little from "Washington" which is usually spoken in conjunction with policies wiith which the speaker disagrees. This low expectation evidently extends to the very people who live here as well.
There are some fantastic things about DC -- what other city has 2 world-class Shakespeare theaters? The newest incarnation of one of them cost millions.
So, what about it Congress, how about putting the nation's resources into making its capital the envy of the world in education and crime statistics as well?

Posted by Michael W | October 3, 2007 4:54 PM

Funny how that works...from supervising playgrounds so that you don't have to ban dodgeball because it gets out of hand to making and sustaining progress on the ground in Iraq. Folks who think you can substitute the watchful eye of security cams (or a satellites) miss the point, and you give short shrift to part of it yourself. A camera doesn't learn.

Yes, the beat cop is a deterrent, but not just because he might happen around the corner when you're committing a crime. Given the same amount of territory, two guys in a cruiser will actually pass that corner far more frequently than their counterparts on foot -- who will also be spotted blocks away by the 10 year old lookout you've posted.

Information is the beat cop's real advantage. Ideally, he knows his neighborhood, and his neighborhood knows him. You're not going to call 911 or flag down a patrol care just because you wonder why some creepy guy seems to be hanging around, but you'll mention him to Officer Smith. He'll pick up on anomolies and incipient or organized criminality faster. In addition to what he sees himself, folks will be passing along a steady stream of info that nobody down at the station house or riding in cruiser would ever hear. I also suspect that if he's talking to everybody, nobody stands out as an informant. The confidence he instills in folks like you might ultimately mean more people out on and about, which yields yet more info and more potential witnesses to potential misdeeds.

In that regard, it would, in fact, seem that the more concentrated the population, the greater the advantage of feet over wheels. I'm not sure the concentration has to be all that high though, before the benefits kick in. If you've got a lot of geography to cover, I'd think the advantage still goes to a guy on a bike. There's almost no chance that any of them will be there when the drug store gets robbed, so save the cruisers for responding to emergencies and hauling miscreants away.

Posted by JM Hanes | October 3, 2007 6:09 PM

Cops on the beat have MUCH more opportunity to be corrupt. If you are supervising an average group of DC cops, you want to keep them in their cars where they can't steal. Putting cops out on the street only works if your police force is basically honest. If they have all been hired because they knew someone in Marion Barry's organization, then you had best leave them in the cars.

Posted by y81 | October 3, 2007 7:54 PM

My roommate and I had the pleasure of being arrested by the DC cops.

A word to the wise -- when you're handcuffed to a wall for having the temerity to walk down M Street with an open bottle beer, don't say 'Don't you guys have any real crime to stop?'

Posted by BT | October 5, 2007 1:28 AM

Very interesting... as always! Cheers from -Switzerland-.

Posted by Dog training | November 25, 2007 5:49 AM