There was a similar MSNBC article from a while ago to n the topic of the MN town that disbanded their police department. The AP's article covers more than just that town, and the reasons and...
There was a similar MSNBC article from a while ago to n the topic of the MN town that disbanded their police department. The AP's article covers more than just that town, and the reasons and results. From the article,
"Generally, crime rates were unchanged in towns that dropped their departments, the Rice University study found. Leaders of several towns said they’ve been happy with the change."
Hard to guess from a distance whether it's good news or bad. It's a change. On the positive side: These are tiny towns and they were probably pretty low-paid positions. Government in the rural US...
Hard to guess from a distance whether it's good news or bad. It's a change.
On the positive side: These are tiny towns and they were probably pretty low-paid positions. Government in the rural US can be very decentralized compared to some places. I'd guess a lot of these folks didn't have much to do much of the time, and not enough resources in an emergency. (Though of course they can work together with other places.) Maybe the county sheriff's department will have more resources and be somewhat more professional? Also, there are a lot more cameras than there used to be, which probably helps.
On the other hand, I'd guess there's some loss of local knowledge, local relationships, and local trust?
So if you do the math, that's an average of 11.6 towns closing down their police force between 1972 and 2017, versus 6 towns per year now. Seem to me that police departments are more stable than ever.
At least 521 U.S. towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 200,000 disbanded policing between 1972 and 2017, according to a peer-reviewed 2022 paper by Rice University Professor of Economics Richard T. Boylan.
So if you do the math, that's an average of 11.6 towns closing down their police force between 1972 and 2017, versus 6 towns per year now. Seem to me that police departments are more stable than ever.
There was a similar MSNBC article from a while ago to n the topic of the MN town that disbanded their police department. The AP's article covers more than just that town, and the reasons and results. From the article,
"Generally, crime rates were unchanged in towns that dropped their departments, the Rice University study found. Leaders of several towns said they’ve been happy with the change."
My tiny town that I grew up in did this 30 years ago. Nothing changed other than the fact that people liked the county sheriff's department better.
Hard to guess from a distance whether it's good news or bad. It's a change.
On the positive side: These are tiny towns and they were probably pretty low-paid positions. Government in the rural US can be very decentralized compared to some places. I'd guess a lot of these folks didn't have much to do much of the time, and not enough resources in an emergency. (Though of course they can work together with other places.) Maybe the county sheriff's department will have more resources and be somewhat more professional? Also, there are a lot more cameras than there used to be, which probably helps.
On the other hand, I'd guess there's some loss of local knowledge, local relationships, and local trust?
So if you do the math, that's an average of 11.6 towns closing down their police force between 1972 and 2017, versus 6 towns per year now. Seem to me that police departments are more stable than ever.
Looks like it won't let me edit and I missed writing the next sentence.