Highlights
Arrests have fallen 25 percent over the last decade, yet some suggest that law enforcement makes too many arrests, or that some groups have more arrests than in previous decades.
Do cops decide the quality or quantity of arrests, or do politicians and community leaders make these decisions?
This is not an issue of police accountability. This is an issue of community and political responsibility.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Aspiring drummer.
Article
Let’s start with the premise that cops making arrests is the result of predatory decision making that’s not in the community’s best interest. That’s the assertion of a variety of advocates and publications.
There are articles claiming that arrests hurt society and result in everything from racism to a quest for overtime. The publications make cops out to be brutal thugs unwilling to change the unceasing onslaught of government power towards marginalized people committing minor indiscretions.
Few cite data that arrests have fallen 25 percent over the last decade, Crime in America. An article from The Intercept and The Vera Institute of Justice suggests that law enforcement makes far too many arrests, and arrests are used inappropriately, Crime in America.
The number of residents who had experienced contact with police dropped by more than 9 million people, Police Contacts Drop.
Who Started The Policy of Aggressive Policing?
Society demands arrests to solve social problems. Either through the Violence Against Women Act or the Mothers Against Drunk Driving or the effort to reclaim our neighborhoods from violent offenders, there are an endless array of “pressures” for cops to act.
When I was a cop, you called a cab (or the offender’s wife) for being “slightly” over the legal limit for driving. Some domestic violence calls resulted in no arrests because it was impossible to figure out who assaulted who. We didn’t arrest for marijuana. We took many (most?) juveniles home after minor incidents.
We focused on making quality arrests because you wanted a reputation with the courts that your cases were solid, no BS arrests. That and the fact that you wanted to be available for the crimes in progress and major incidents.
It All Changed
Somehow, we became an arrest crazy society not because cops choose this path, but because the federal government or the governor or mayor or city councilperson or community leaders or advocates demanded tougher action.
“When the hell are you going to get these thugs off the corners,” was the statement coming from dozens of community people. “Drinking and driving won’t stop unless people pay a price,” said others. “What do you mean you didn’t arrest him! He hit her. Lock his ass up,” came from advocates.
Cops weren’t crazy about the change. Every arrest, every vehicle or pedestrian stop involves risk. There’s no such thing as a safe stop or arrest. Yet most of the pressure came from advocates and city or community leadership. What they wanted, and they were not subtle about their demands, was that cops should get tough and end the problems.
We Did Arrest
We did arrest obviously drunk drivers, domestic batterers when there was clearcut evidence, and people causing damage to a community. But an arrest was not the default response. Arrests were reserved for those deserving.
The guy swerving all over the road? Arrested. The loud and profane person on the corner who wouldn’t leave after a warning? Arrested. The husband who hit his wife with a frying pan? Arrested. The violent offender wanted for a robbery? Arrested.
When we brought these cases into court, we got convictions. We arrested when we didn’t have a choice.
We were judicious because we wanted to be available for the big stuff. When you called about someone breaking into your house or a lost child or a medical emergency, we were there quickly because we weren’t making arrests for something minor.
Then society demanded arrests for everyone, every time.
The Violence Against Women Act Prompted Arrests
The article below from the Huff Post is about Joe Biden and the former Vice President’s efforts on the behalf of the Violence Against Women Act (edited and rearranged for brevity).
…” in his lengthy résumé, there is one policy that Biden and his supporters tout as a nearly unimpeachable feminist success: the Violence Against Women Act. Biden, who wrote the landmark 1994 bill, calls it his proudest legislative achievement.
From the very beginning, VAWA’s goal was to improve how police and prosecutors responded to the insidious problem of domestic violence, moving it out of the realm of private family matter and into the criminal justice system.
Annual rates of domestic violence have dropped by 63 percent since VAWA’s enactment, even though experts say it’s unclear if the law is directly responsible for the decrease.
But 25 years after its passage, some advocates and scholars question whether VAWA’s steadfast emphasis on law enforcement to solve domestic abuse was indeed the right call. In particular, they point to how the law resulted in some battered women being sent to prison, alongside their abusers.
Years before the passing of VAWA, arrests were rarely made in cases of domestic violence. Fights between husband and wife, girlfriend and boyfriend — domestic abuse, back then, was almost always categorized as male vs. female — were not taken seriously by law enforcement. In fact, many departments had policies specifically discouraging arrest in domestic violence cases.
Cops weren’t making necessary (emphasis added) arrests, and advocates complained criminal justice enforcers didn’t understand domestic violence. VAWA brought both sides together, creating an uneasy and sometimes uncomfortable alliance.
The legislation encouraged states to adopt mandatory arrest policies, which required police officers responding to domestic violence calls to arrest someone at the scene. At the time, some advocates welcomed the provision.
“We ripped the Band-Aid off a shameful secret and exposed the ugly truth of domestic violence to the public eye,” he said. “It helped change America,” Huff Post.
Conclusion-We Ask The Police To Do Too Much
But it’s not just the Violence Against Women Act, it’s an endless parade of advocates who wanted law enforcement to do more, arrest more, incarcerate more. I’ve seen community leaders scream at police leadership to make more arrests. I’ve seen people claim that restrained arrests meant that cops didn’t care.
There were an endless array of organizations who saw arrests as something good, something just, mechanisms for a better society. The data confirms that proactive policing reduces crime and makes communities safer, Proactive Policing.
States shut down mental institutions because advocates demanded community-based treatment (which never happened) thus the mentally ill became a problem for officers.
“We ask the police to do too much and we ask too little of ourselves,” claimed President Barack Obama, White House. He was correct.
So when the discussion turns to arrests and incarcerations, understand that the emphasis came from many segments of society who believed that cops could or should be more aggressive, and that removing troublesome or criminal people was in society’s best interest.
Accountability and consequences, including arrests, are part of the #MeToo movement.
The policy of aggressive arrests didn’t come from street cops. It came from everyone else. If the emphasis on arrests has changed, yelling at or berating officers isn’t the solution. It’s time to acknowledge that we ask the police to do too much and we ask too little of ourselves.
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