Recent statistics show that a decrease in arrests throughout the country has correlated with soaring crime rates. It’s a revelation that defies left-wing criminal justice orthodoxy but not common sense. The logic is quite simple: the lower the number of criminals arrested after crimes committed, the more crime there will be.
Look no further than the city of Chicago. Last year was the city’s deadliest in over 25 years.
The Windy City experienced some of its most violent years on record in 2020 and 2021, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Yet, the number of arrests made by police officers precipitously dropped during this same time frame. Despite the record-breaking year for violent crime in 2021, police made arrests in just 12% of all crimes — the lowest level in over two decades.
And it’s not just the number of arrests in violent crimes that have decreased. It’s an extensive reduction in all police activity by the Chicago Police Department. Statistics showed drops in police citations, traffic stops, and investigative stops (pat-downs and searches by police officers of people on the street if police suspected them of potential criminal acts).
Between 2019 and 2021, the number of investigative stops dwindled from 155,000 to 69,000, a greater than 50% drop. All of this led to an emboldened criminal class and a surge in crime. Initiatives to protect the criminals have doomed the innocent.
One of the critical components of this phenomenon is left-wing political activism that stemmed from the nationwide riots, looting, and other civil unrest over cases involving black men who were killed during interactions with the police. This facilitated a reluctance among the police to do their job for fear of getting into trouble, some officers claimed. Whereas before they would proactively pursue criminal suspects, the recent political climate has made many of them reluctant in the line of duty.
“In the past, I might see a guy with a gun in his waistband, and I’d jump out and chase him,” a police officer said. “No way I’d do that now.”
Additionally, while more crimes are happening, fewer crimes are actually getting reported by both victims and police. Data show that the number of reported crimes reached its lowest level in decades — an odd and dangerous reality given the climate of violence that has plagued Chicago (and other cities throughout the country).
Furthermore, scientific studies have found that a more significant police presence in communities reduces crime. University of Pennsylvania Department of Criminology professor Aaron Chalfin said that a greater number of “sworn police officers can lead to a reduction in violent crime.” Of most importance, Chalfin concluded that a smaller police force coincides with more violent crime.
“A lot of this depends on what the police do,” he said. “If you were to reduce the size of the police force, and you had way fewer officers, the available data tell us that that’s a risk because police manpower does have an effect on crime, particularly violent crime.”
Police must be able to do their jobs. Handcuffing them to the whims and demands of the social justice morality crowd endangers the innocent. The only thing left-wing criminal justice reforms have accomplished is rampant violent crime and an unwillingness to hold criminals accountable.
