wv wrote:

dont believe in a human utopia.

but it’s definitely something we should strive toward.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2017/02/09/compstat-computer-police-policing-the-usa-community/97568874/

When policing stats do more harm than good: Column
Pressure to raise numbers unjustly pushes police into minority neighborhoods — and into bloating crime statistics
Joseph L. Giacalone and Alex S. Vitale

On Jan. 23, New York City announced a $75 million payout to settle a class-action lawsuit against the New York Police Department. The complainants successfully argued that the NYPD issued more than 900,000 unlawful criminal summonses. Lawsuits like these are preventable, but only if we bring about substantial changes in the organizational culture of police, most important their overreliance on a numbers- and data-driven statistics (or CompStat) system.

CompStat was created in the mid-1990s by then-NYPD Commissioner William Bratton and his Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple, as a way to reorient police toward reducing crime through enhanced information sharing and accountability. It’s now used by departments across the country. The CompStat (which originally stood for comparative statistics) system is multilayered. It is first a computer database of crime statistics (murders, robberies, rapes, larcenies, car thefts) and police activity (stops, tickets, summonses, arrests) for a given district or precinct. District data are analyzed during regional meetings, also called CompStat.

A good tool, abused

The NYPD says CompStat was the driving force in reducing crime by 75% in about 20 years. Unfortunately, as with many new toys, those who used it found a way to break it. Instead of police departments developing it into a tool that could better control crime, they weaponized it. It was and is wielded as a tool of punishment, embarrassment and coercion. The foot was never taken off the gas, even in light of record drops in crime.

Every week in conference rooms across the country, police officials gather for CompStat meetings. Toting binders packed with statistics, precinct commanders wait to be called on the carpet by police chiefs about what they are or are not doing to control crime. They have no idea what they will be asked or where the questions will lead. Not every commander will be called on, and stress levels are high. The attempt at intimidation by police chiefs is intentional. Like the saying goes: Kill one, frighten thousands.

Imagine watching a fellow commander being dressed down because there were few stops or summonses in a high-crime area.

Even if more stops aren’t necessary in your jurisdiction, you’ll likely return to your community and take a closer look at where you can bump up your CompStat numbers to avoid being the next commander humiliated during a meeting.

As the precinct commander, you explain to your lieutenants that they must ensure arrests and summonses are up as well as stops. Ultimately, sergeants in your district tell patrol officers to crack down in neighborhoods that may or may not need it. If those cops don’t, they could face retribution in the form of denial of requested days off or poor work schedules. Officers, sergeants, lieutenants and commanders act out of self-preservation instead of developing the most effective and just crime fighting tools.

Less numbers, more social services
When cops are under pressure to show productivity, they make stops and hand out summonses they may not otherwise. That creates excesses that don’t actually reduce crime. The CompStat mentality has created a wedge between the police and the communities they are supposed to serve.

Eli Silverman, a criminologist, and John Eterno, a former NYPD precinct captain, show in their book The Crime Numbers Game that in New York City, CompStat led directly to abusive police practices in communities of color and contributed to police commanders falsifying crime figures to bloat their numbers and make it look like some communities are committing more crimes than they are.

This is not just a problem in New York. All across the country, many of the complaints about excessive and heavy handed policing are driven by unnecessary and counterproductive overpolicing in an attempt to “get the numbers up.” The Justice Department raised the issue of too many punitive interactions with the public in their reports on both the Baltimore and Chicago police departments.

There is an alternative.

Former cop turned Harvard Kennedy School professor Malcom Sparrow argues in his book Handcuffed that police need to drop the numbers game and focus on the craft of local problem solving. Problem-oriented policing is based on the idea that many crime and disorder problems are ongoing and have their roots in local social dynamics that can’t be resolved with an isolated arrest or ticket. Instead, police need to identify the larger social issues and work with other city agencies to try to address them. A rash of car break-ins or burglaries might be tied to the closing of a youth program or an increase in homelessness that requires a sustained and systematic response from many different agencies, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach of ratcheting up the number of tickets and arrests.

If we want to repair community-police relationships and create substantive changes, then we must reform CompStat. Police need information and managerial accountability, but they must also bring back the discretion and creativity at the heart of policing. The biggest challenge, however, may be getting these departments to admit that there is a problem in the first place.

Joseph L. Giacalone is a retired NYPD detective sergeant and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Alex S. Vitale is associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and coordinator of its Policing and Social Justice Project.

like i said i don’t think it can be completely disbanded. there are times where you are going to need force and mental health service providers and social workers will not be able to deal with that. but it’s definitely an interesting idea.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html

There’s a growing call to defund the police. Here’s what it means
By Scottie Andrew, CNN

There’s a growing group of dissenters who believe Americans can survive without law enforcement as we know it. And Americans, those dissenters believe, may even be better off without it.

The solution to police brutality and racial inequalities in policing is simple, supporters say: Just defund police.

It’s as straightforward as it sounds: Instead of funding a police department, a sizable chunk of a city’s budget is invested in communities, especially marginalized ones where much of the policing occurs.

The concept’s been a murmur for years, particularly following the protests against police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri, though it seemed improbable in 2014.

But it’s becoming a shout. With the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police and nationwide protests demanding reform, at least one city is considering dissolving its police force altogether.

Does defunding the police mean disbanding the police?

That depends on who you ask, said Philip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Yale University and lead research and policy associate at the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability.

Some supporters of divestment want to reallocate some, but not all, funds away from police departments to social services. Some want to strip all police funding and dissolve departments.

The concept exists on a spectrum, but both interpretations center on reimagining what public safety looks like, he said.

It also means dismantling the idea that police are “public stewards” meant to protect communities. Many Black Americans and other people of color don’t feel protected by police, McHarris said.

Why defund police?

McHarris says divesting funds ends the culture of punishment in the criminal justice system. And it’s one of the only options local governments haven’t tried in their attempts to end deaths in police custody.

Trainings and body cameras haven’t brought about the change supporters want.
McHarris grew up in a neighborhood where there were “real, discernible threats of gun violence,” and he said he never thought to call the police — that was for his own safety. Instead, he relied on neighbors who helped him navigate threats of danger.
What if, he said, those people could provide the same support they showed him on a full-time basis?

To explain why he supports the idea, Isaac Bryan, the director of UCLA’s Black Policy Center, points to history: Law enforcement in the South began as slave patrol, a team of vigilantes hired to recapture escaped slaves. Then, when slavery was abolished, police enforced Jim Crow laws — even the most minor infractions.

And today, police disproportionately use force against black people, and black people are more likely to be arrested and sentenced.

“That history is engrained in our law enforcement,” Bryan said.

Where would those funds go?

Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, said defunding the police means reallocating those funds to support people and services in marginalized communities.

Defunding law enforcement “means that we are reducing the ability for law enforcement to have resources that harm our communities,” Cullors said in an interview with WBUR, Boston’s public radio station. “It’s about reinvesting those dollars into black communities, communities that have been deeply divested from.”

Those dollars can be put back into social services for mental health, domestic violence and homelessness, among others. Police are often the first responders to all three, she said.

Those dollars can be used to fund schools, hospitals, housing and food in those communities, too — “all of the things we know increase safety,” McHarris said.

Why disband police?

Disbanding police altogether falls on the more radical end of the police divestment spectrum, but it’s gaining traction.

MPD150, a community advocacy organization in Minneapolis, focuses on abolishing local police. Its work has been spotlighted since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis Police custody.

“The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises,” the organization says.

Rather than “strangers armed with guns,” the organization says, first responders should be mental health providers, social workers, victim advocates and other community members in less visible roles.

It argues law and order isn’t abetted by law enforcement, but through education, jobs and mental health services that low-income communities are often denied. MPD150 and other police abolition organizations want wider access to all three.

Would defunding police lead to an uptick in violent crimes?

Defunding police on a large scale hasn’t been done before, so it’s tough to say.
But there’s evidence that less policing can lead to less crime. A 2017 report, which focused on several weeks in 2014 through 2015 when the New York Police Department purposely pulled back on “proactive policing,” found that there were 2,100 fewer crime complaints during that time.

The study defines proactive policing as the “systematic and aggressive enforcement of low-level violations” and heightened police presence in areas where “crime is anticipated.”

That’s exactly the kind of activity that police divestment supporters want to end.

Will defunding the police come to pass?

It’s radical for an American city to operate without law enforcement, but it’s already being discussed in Minneapolis.

City council member Steve Fletcher, in a Twitter thread, said council members are discussing “what it would take to disband the Minneapolis Police Department and start fresh with a community-oriented, non-violent public safety and outreach capacity.”

“We can totally reimagine what public safety means, what skills we’re recruiting for, what tools we do and don’t need,” he wrote. “We can invest in cultural competency and mental health training, de-escalation and conflict resolution.”

Defunding is simpler than disbanding, though, and at least one mayor’s already taken that step. After Californians decried a proposal to increase the Los Angeles Police Department budget to $1.86 billion, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti agreed to slash between $100 million to $150 million from the proposed funding.

It’s not a significant dent in the budget, but it’s proof that officials are listening, Bryan said.

“A week ago, defunding the police in any capacity would sound like ‘pie in the sky,'” he said. “Now we’re talking about it. Defunding police in its entirety still might sound like ‘pie in the sky,’ but next week might be different.”