• admiralteal
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    181 year ago

    It’s not that reducing the cops lowered crime. It’s most likely that crime was dropping anyway, so fewer cops were needed regardless. Which is, itself, a HUGE problem with the way policing is generally handled – cops have zero incentive to reduce crime because if crime is successfully reduced so too is the demand for cops. The only incentive is to do the bare minimum of busywork to keep people thinking they’re necessary so they don’t get laid off. Cops would rather crime grow worse so they can get more funding.

    Even investigating is dangerous for them. Unclosed cases make them look bad, and most cases go unclosed. So better to avoid being out there supporting the community, identifying cases that will remain unclosed. They’re better off soliciting and inducing crime themselves so that any new cases that come to their attention can be automatically closed at the same time – who cares if the person would likely not have been a criminal without them! And doubly so who cares if the crime is only a danger to the community as a direct result of its criminalization.