Are Numbers Enough to Prevent Crime?

Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca said, "He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it." The topic of crime prevention is widely discussed and debated both inside and out side of the criminal justice field. The question has been asked; are more police officers the solution to the social phenomenon that is crime? While more police officers are a key ingredient to crime prevention this alone is not enough.

In a February 2, 2007 Sacramento Bee editorial the journalist suggests that while more cops are an asset to the community of Sacramento, this is not enough. According to the article, "...of the nation's 50 largest cities, Sacramento has the lowest ratio of uniformed police officers to residents." This low ratio (1.46 officers per 1,000 residents) forces the police to focus their attention on the most serious crimes such as murders, assaults and other violent crimes, while offenses such as property crimes and victimless crimes are left for the community to handle themselves. As a result the members of the community lack a sense of security and do not feel that they can depend on the police to help them.

The city of Sacramento is aiming to increase the officer to resident ratio to 2 officers per 1,000 residents, in an attempt to alleviate the city's crime problem. However, the author asserts that, "...more police alone won't solve the crime problem. Washington D.C., has 6.8 police officers per 1,000 residents, yet it remains among the nations most dangerous cities." The author then suggests that more probation officers are essential in order to tackle this dilemma. There are not enough probation officers to adequately supervise the massive amount of criminals in the community.

As an Intern for Solano county probation department I have seen this quandary first-hand. Due to enormous case load sizes it is nearly impossible for probation officers to give each probationer the amount of supervision that is needed to sufficiently protect the community or help the offender. The officers are bombarded with paper work, reports and court dates and have limited to time to spend in the field or doing actual supervision. As a result many criminals go unsupervised, which is a dangerous situation for the community in which they reside.

This article also proposes that attendance centers, such as the one at Burbank High School, where truants are picked up and taken to the center, are an excellent strategy for crime prevention. Once at the center the minors' patents are notified and an attempt is made to determine why the minor is skipping school. As a result of this attendance center, "From Oct.10 until Dec. 7, police saw dramatic declines in crime in a half-mile area surrounding the center, ranging form a 28 percent drop in stolen vehicles to a 71 percent drop in vandalism compared to the same period in 2005."

It is my belief that when kids are busy with school and extracurricular activities they are less likely to get into trouble. On the other hand, when they become bored or restless they are more likely to engage in unlawful activity in an attempt to achieve excitement or thrill. For this reason I would concur that attendance centers like the one at Burbank High are a promising tool for crime prevention/ reduction.

Last week in Solano county 66 officers from 11 law enforcement agencies spent 10 hours sweeping the city of Vacaville and made over 14 arrests. According to an article in the Vacaville newspaper, The Reporter, "Among those targeted were probationers, parolees, gang members and affiliates, and violent criminals." The purpose of this sweep was to thwart gang activity and reduce recidivism rates within Solano County. Scott Wright, head of Vacaville's Crime Suppression Team stated, "We want to make sure they know it's [crime] not tolerated... We've found that every time we do one of these, crime goes down.

That's our ultimate goal - to make the community safer." I am not surprised that an operation such as this would have a positive effect on crime rates, especially if done several times as year, as is the case in Vacaville. It serves a wake up call to community; a warning to criminals that the police are out there and that they take crime seriously. This acts as specific deterrence for the offenders who are apprehended and as general deterrence for those who see what happens when you commit a crime is this community. It is also a comfort to the law abiding citizens to see law enforcement taking charge and keeping the community safe and maintaining order by using formal control. However, we must then revisit the problem of not enough probation officers. After the arrests are made who will supervise the offenders.

What the public wants most from the police is fairness. For this reason I believe it is crucial for police to build a rapport with the people in the community that they serve. I am convicted that if the citizens feel that the police are fair and that the police respect them, citizens will be more cooperative with law enforcement and more like to report crime. In order to build this rapport the police must be more accessible and approachable; they must come out of their cruisers and interact with the community. As said by an article in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, "The ability to communicate effectively and build rapport stands as one of the major contributors to a police officer's success in dealing with the public." I am confident that if police have a strong rapport with their community crime rates will go down. When the people trust the police to protect them and to help them with their problems they have no need to take the law into their own hands.

For this reason I feel the police rapport will lead to a decline in violent crime and frustration-induced crime. When citizens have a mutual respect with the police they will take more pride in their community and this will lead to a decrease in property crime. When crimes are committed, the citizens will be more cooperative to the police and willing to provide them with information about what is really going on in their neighborhood. This will then lead to a higher occurrence of solving crimes and apprehending criminals. A department can increase their number of officers tenfold, but if the police and community do not have a positive relationship it will not do much good. If police officers are interested in reducing crime rates they should start by building a rapport with those they serve.

In order to prevent/ reduce crime it is important to have enough police officers in each community. Nevertheless, other steps must be taken such as hiring more probation officers, appearing though on crime and building rapport with the community members. Just hiring more officers alone is not sufficient to significantly impact crime rates. If law enforcement doesn't take steps to prevent crime than by default they are promoting crime.
Works Cited

Sacramento Bee, "Underpoliced city: It takes more than police to make us safer", 2/7/2007

www.thereporter.com, Kimberly K. Fu, "Law sweeps across city for violators", 10/19/2007

Sandoval, Vincent A. and Adams, Susan H., FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin; SUBTLE SKILLS FOR BUILDING RAPPORT, Aug2001, Vol. 70 Issue 8, p1, 5p, 1bw