Rise In Crime Is A Reason To Fear Anti-Police Rhetoric

Violence is rising in many cities across the country. May was by some measures the most crime-ridden month in Baltimore's history since records started being kept, according to the Baltimore Sun.

In Milwaukee, homicides were up 180 percent by May 17 compared to the same period in 2014.

In Houston, murders were up nearly 100 percent through March. In Chicago, shootings were up 25 percent and homicides up 18 percent through May 24. In New York, murder was up 20 percent and shooting incidents 9 percent through May 31.

Not all cities are experiencing significant crime increases. But enough are to demand attention.

One possible explanation is that officers have become reluctant to engage in proactive policing because of the vitriol they have faced over the last nine months, a hypothesis based on interviews with officers, the observations of commanders, and past experience. The claim, frequently repeated in the media, that police routinely kill young black men has led to riots, sometimes violent protests and attacks on officers.

The assassination of two New York police officers in December tamped down the rhetoric only temporarily. Two men who met during the protests in Ferguson, Mo., pleaded guilty this week to planning to bomb a police station.

Arrests in many communities have become fraught, with angry crowds surrounding officers when they respond to calls for assistance.

A good-faith error may now lead to a criminal indictment, police worry. Cell phone videos may capture only their own use of force and not a suspect's resistance to an arrest.

In November, Chief Sam Dotson of the St. Louis Police referred to the “Ferguson effect”: officers backing away from discretionary enforcement under charges of racism, thereby emboldening criminals. At that point, arrests in St. Louis city and county had dropped a third since the August shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson. Homicides in the city had surged 47 percent and robberies in the county were up 82 percent. In Baltimore, arrests dropped 56 percent this May since the protests and riots over the death of Freddie Gray, while shootings so far this year are up more than 60 percent compared to the same period last year.

In New York, arrests are down 17.4 percent through May 31 compared to the same period last year. Criminal summons, which encompass many discretionary, low-level offenses, are down 26 percent.

Pedestrian stops in New York are down 95 percent from the 2011 high. Guns are showing up daily in routine street encounters, N.Y.P.D. officials report.

Any police killing of an unarmed, innocent civilian is a horrifying tragedy that training must work incessantly to prevent. And officers have an obligation to treat the public with courtesy and respect. But if police officers disengage, the casualties will be millions of law-abiding residents of crime-ridden neighborhoods who were liberated from fear by the last two decades of proactive enforcement.

This piece originally appeared in the New York Times Room for Debate.

This piece originally appeared in New York Times Room for Debate