Baltimore police stopped noticing crime after Freddie Gray's death. A wave of killings followed.

originally posted by: loam

Ba ltimore police stopped noticing crime after Freddie Gray's death. A wave of killings followed.

Just before a wave of violence turned Baltimore into the nation’s deadliest big city, a curious thing happened to its police force: officers suddenly seemed to stop noticing crime.

Police officers reported seeing fewer drug dealers on street corners. They encountered fewer people who had open arrest warrants.

Police questioned fewer people on the street. They stopped fewer cars.

The article continues:

Millions of police records show officers in Baltimore respond to calls as quickly as ever. But they now begin far fewer encounters themselves. From 2014 to 2017, dispatch records show the number of suspected narcotics offenses police reported themselves dropped 30 percent; the number of people they reported seeing with outstanding warrants dropped by half. The number of field interviews – instances in which the police approach someone for questioning – dropped 70 percent.

I know the knee-jerk reaction by some will be to blame the left for this.

I have a different take. I think these numbers represent the healthy percentage of LEOs that should be moved out of the force. They didn't belong there to begin with, imo.

What's your take?

It is because police are not engaging in "pro active" policing. Basically, using common sense and street sense to spot and arrest thugs before crime happens. The reality is that police don't get the shooters/murderers off the streets when they are in the midst of pulling the trigger. They get them off the street under lesser charges... i.e, they know a guy is a known shooter, but catch him with a dime bag of weed or some other much lower level crime. By constantly keeping these guys in the clink on low level stuff, they ultimately wind up reducing the crime rate.

What has happened is that the government and media have told the police on the street, they will not have their back when pro-actively policing the hyenas. As such, the police have basically said "f' it", call us when their is a body on the street.

It ain't worth being filmed wrestling with some 5x felon (who miraculously is all of a sudden going to college and "turned their life around") according to the civil rights minstrels.

This outcome was predicted years ago only to be denied by leftist SJWs.

The police are in a no win situation. If they go clean up the blocks and get the thugs off the street, the SJWs will claim they are targeting black men, etc. If they stand back and do nothing, then they are accused of no doing anything. Which one is it? The community either wants the thugs gone or they don't.

Of course, a big problem is that the thugs are often family members and friends which is part of the problem too.

a reply to: loam

BMore be sounding like Detroit in Robocop.



(only 'robocop police strike' video that came up)

originally posted by: loam

Ba ltimore police stopped noticing crime after Freddie Gray's death. A wave of killings followed.

Just before a wave of violence turned Baltimore into the nation’s deadliest big city, a curious thing happened to its police force: officers suddenly seemed to stop noticing crime.

Police officers reported seeing fewer drug dealers on street corners. They encountered fewer people who had open arrest warrants.

Police questioned fewer people on the street. They stopped fewer cars.

The article continues:

Millions of police records show officers in Baltimore respond to calls as quickly as ever. But they now begin far fewer encounters themselves. From 2014 to 2017, dispatch records show the number of suspected narcotics offenses police reported themselves dropped 30 percent; the number of people they reported seeing with outstanding warrants dropped by half. The number of field interviews – instances in which the police approach someone for questioning – dropped 70 percent.

I know the knee-jerk reaction by some will be to blame the left for this.

I have a different take. I think these numbers represent the healthy percentage of LEOs that should be moved out of the force. They didn't belong there to begin with, imo.

What's your take?

Another point that is not explicitly stated is that this also shows how messed up the black community is in Baltimore and other urban cities. Think about it...

There is so much crime, debauchery, and outright moral depravity residing in the black community in Baltimore that if the police aren't around, the neighborhoods basically turn into the Purge. Let that sink in.

In contrast, I live in a community where all cops would do here is school street crossings and parking tickets. Worst thing they'd do is bust a 10th grader for smoking a joint.

Unfortunately, my town is really close to the one of the worst areas in Chicago, so we get drifters come over to commit crime resulting in my town having a very high number of police per capita. 99% of our robberies, burglaries, thefts, and the like are committed by people who don't even live in our community.

a reply to: Edumakated

yes, its a shame there is only on group of people whom have to be told NOT to kill each other time and time again.

i want to see a number 1 on the chart rap/r&b song about that.... i won't hold my breath.

originally posted by: odzeandennz
a reply to: Edumakated

yes, its a shame there is only on group of people whom have to be told NOT to kill each other time and time again.

Murderers? Yeah, i wish we could eradicate that behavior.

a reply to: loam

Methinks the answer can be found, (implied) from this article:
en.wikipedia.org...

In April 2017, U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar approved a proposed consent decree between Baltimore and the U.S. Department of Justice, "mandating sweeping police reforms at a time of intense violence and deep community distrust in the city police."[3] He denied a Department of Justice request to postpone signing the decree for 30 days in order to allow review by the Trump Administration.[3][4] On May 10, 2018, newly appointed Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa was charged in U.S. District Court with three misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal taxes for 2013, 2014 and 2015.[5] Mayor Catherine Pugh initially expressed support for De Sousa, but a day later she suspended him with pay pending the resolution of the charges against him.[6] De Sousa resigned several days later.[7]

So, from that I infer that the BPD has been in quite a state of turmoil since the Gray incident. As a result of that, I'd guess a lot of cops have moved on to other Police Departments. There isn't any demographic information of recent vintage for BPD that I can find, except one article from 2015 to the effect that well over half BPD is "minorities". I would guess that since the Gray incident and all the reorganization, yada yada, its now almost entirely "minority" staffed. And BTW, that's just fine with me personally; I'd guess that pretty much fits the demographic picture of Baltimore and that would improve the trust factor between the Cops and the "Citizens".

I would also infer from the article that the higher ups in Baltimore and the BPD leadership have taken the more modern "stand down" approach to policing that was adopted in the major metro area I lived in. Cops there basically "drove around", quit doing traffic stops unless it was for gross violations, and added about 15 minutes to their response times depending on the severity of the situation. By doing that, the Cops basically take themselves out of potential conflict situations with firearms and basically function as the crime-scene lockdown squad pending arrival of the CSI team where there's been any killing done. You'll also notice that these days, there's practically NO high speed car chases. Cops have been told to stand down on those as well.

Welcome to the new normal in policing in the US. The Wild Wild West days are over.

a reply to: Edumakated

O.K. then, that's telling it like it is.

Unfortunately in many major metro areas, particularly in fast growing urban areas in Texas, Obama's HUD bulldozed the projects and dispersed the hornets nest throughout the entire county/counties. In those areas, no place is "safe" and people are most vulnerable at gas stations and Walmart/Super Market/Mall parking lots.

Simply put..........the US is a mess!

a reply to: Edumakated

Of course, a big problem is that the thugs are often family members and friends which is part of the problem too.

Not to mention the fact that now, in many Urban areas, the thugs are the cops themselves.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: Edumakated

Of course, a big problem is that the thugs are often family members and friends which is part of the problem too.

Not to mention the fact that now, in many Urban areas, the thugs are the cops themselves.

Yeah, my point was just that the community speaks out of both sides of their mouths. On the one hand, they complain about the crime but then won't acknowledge that it is their kids doing the crime. The whole "didindunuffin" phenomenon...

I got called for jury duty here in Chicago. I didn't get to serve because my wife going into labor the week of the trial. Anyway, the case was a typical Chicago gun trial where a repeat thug felon got busted with a firearm. It was eye opening.

The most fascinating thing though was that one of the jurors being interviewed was a typical ghetto hood rat. Anyway, she point blank told the judge that she couldn't be impartial because she didn't like how the police in Chicago dealt with young black men in here neighborhood. However, here on trial is a guy packing heat. Black men dropping like flies in her hood from getting shot, yet she doesn't want to prosecute the multiple felon caught with the firearm. It was just mindboggling to me.

The one thing I don't like though about police is that there are a lot of roided up special forces wannabes with their tacticool gear policing these hoods. Granted, when you are dealing with zoo animals, you don't want to send in the meek, but one can't help but wonder if these low IQ cromagon cops just exacerbate the situation some.

a reply to: Edumakated

The one thing I don't like though about police is that there are a lot of roided up special forces wannabes with their tacticool gear policing these hoods. Granted, when you are dealing with zoo animals, you don't want to send in the meek, but one can't help but wonder if these low IQ cromagon cops just exacerbate the situation some.

I guess things vary from State to State. We don't see a lot of that in Texas except where there's a hostage taking or people are trapped in a Bank or something like that.

Its just a guess on my part, but my guess is that Policing in the US is transitioning from proactive policing (cop on the beat type policing) to the "reactive" type policing which is sort of the UK/Euro model. In the reactive mode they mostly investigate, care for the victims and then rely on Camera technologies to help them catch the bad guys. In California they're testing "predictive" policing with computer algorithms to dispatch patrols to "expected" hot spots. The idea is that the sight of the patrols will deter any crime that might have been planned in the area.

I'd guess the reactive model will work pretty well once they build out the total CCTV surveillance systems.

a reply to: TrueBrit

So, did you read the story, or just run with the headline and spout off an opinion?

In the story, it literally notes that police are responding to calls as quickly as they ever had. What has changed is that they are no longer being as aggressive in "on-view" interactions in three areas:

Millions of police records show officers in Baltimore respond to calls as quickly as ever. But they now begin far fewer encounters themselves. From 2014 to 2017, dispatch records show the number of suspected narcotics offenses police reported themselves dropped 30 percent; the number of people they reported seeing with outstanding warrants dropped by half. The number of field interviews – instances in which the police approach someone for questioning – dropped 70 percent.

OP Source

See, in 2015, after the death of Mr. Gray, the DOJ (AG Lynch) initiated investigations of the Baltimore PD "focused on allegations that Baltimore police officers use excessive force, including deadly force, conduct unlawful searches, seizures or arrests, and engage in discriminatory policing." (wiki)

Is it any surprise that on-view interactions by the PD fell in correlation with the same topics being reviewed by the DOJ? I mean, yes, it's possible that this is indicative of known and purposeful wrongdoing in those aspects of policing, but it could also be based on a directive to apply heightened subjective scrutiny and err on the side of caution (which they should always do) when interacting with suspects.

I would think that when people call for "new membership and new leadership, IMMEDIATELY," that they might take a moment to consider that this decline in policing could be an appropriate thing, since there was so much outrage directed at how they were policing in the first place. I mean, a 70% drop in police-initiated questioning of people for wrongdoing on the street is probably a pretty good thing overall, don't you agree?

Instead of instructing a police department to "try doing the job you were hired for," maybe you should acknowledge that it appears that they have made some corrections and are possibly policing in a way that is better for the community.

As for the increase in shootings--you have to blame the murderers for that, not the police. More often than not in those cases, police RESPOND to calls of shootings, they don't just happen upon them at a time where they could prevent it. Since they are answering calls as quickly as ever, I would argue that your anger is misdirected and ignorant to the trends in the BPD policing since Mr. Gray's death.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: loam

What would you have them do?

If you are a police officer with a family - wife and kids - and you see an incident that you know could spiral very quickly, what do you do? It's not like after all the legal battles you can just go back to work, and the lengthy legal battles are going to destroy your family. What fallout will they take because it's not like your name will be kept out of the news.

Your kids will have to survive at school being the known son or daughter of a racist killer cop because that's how the press brands you.

As was discussed in another thread. We live in times where the very worst thing you can be branded is a racist ... worse than a murderer or rapist.

So what would you have them do?

At this point, you have only the worst who will risk being cops because of the potential character assassination and legal problems that come with it. It becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.

Not volunteer to be a police officer if you cant handle the risks and problems of the job.