Crimes on the Rise Due to Recession Say Police Agencies

In every recession since the 1950s, crime as gone hand and hand with the economic decline (source: news.yahoo.com). Now amidst budget cuts for many police departments across the country police agencies say that crime is once again raising as the economy falls and their ability to fight back may be hindered.

With a bad economy come lost jobs, lost savings and lost pride. People grow increasingly desperate and many times will turn to crime to try to make ends meet. But along with that comes the career criminals who can now, thanks to budget cuts, commit crimes at a more successful rate as police departments are literally "hand cuffed" when it comes to mounting an offensive or a defensive.

With a usual budget, police departments are able to focus overtime hours and special task forces to concentrate on high crime areas. Now that many police departments across America are being forced to cut back, a great deal of special programs aimed at combating these high crime areas will have to suffer (source: news.yahoo.com). How bad is it?

Of 233 police agencies surveyed by Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) 63 percent of the departments were planning budget cuts for the next fiscal year. PERF said on average these agencies planned on cutting their budgets by about 6.24 percent and many of the agencies have already preformed cuts recently. On the flip side a staggering 44 percent of the agencies surveyed said they had seen an increase in crime (source: news.yahoo.com).

The overall budget cuts really speak to how bad the economy is getting as police funding is generally the last thing to suffer. Local agencies and governments are usually reluctant to cut funds because public safety is usual viewed as a top priority (source; News.yahoo.com).

The PERF report showed exactly where the increase in crime was coming from as well. Of the 100 agencies that linked crime increasing to the economic crisis, 39 percent said they had seen an increase in robberies, 32 percent a rise in burglaries and 40 percent an increase in thefts from vehicles (source: news.yahoo.com). But a solution does not seem forthcoming.

While it is true that everyone must tighten their belts during this economic hardship, there are certain things that should not suffer. While budget cuts are to be expected in almost every facet of government, officials really need to be wary of how much of a negative impact too much budget cutting from the police departments can have. Fighting crime is a business and the police must have the proper resources to effectively run their business. Otherwise America needs to be ready for crime to continue to climb so long as the economy continues to fall.