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NYPD refusing to enforce petty crime.

Agree with the positives of the lack of focus on petty crime. Seems like NYC could let some cops go if they're reducing their own workload and they can't just harass people for no reason anymore.
 
Deacon923 posts The Atlantic

The Post, which enthusiastically championed the NYPD during this year's turmoil, portrayed this slowdown in near-apocalyptic terms—an early headline for the article above even read "Crime wave engulfs New York following execution of cops." But the police union's phrasing—officers shouldn't make arrests "unless absolutely necessary"—begs the question: How many unnecessary arrests was the NYPD making before now?

Policing quality doesn't necessarily increase with policing quantity, as New York's experience with stop-and-frisk demonstrated. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg asserted that the controversial tactic of warrantless street searches "keeps New York City safe." De Blasio ended the program soon after succeeding him, citing its discriminatory impact on black and Hispanic residents. Stop-and-frisk incidents plunged from 685,724 stops in 2011 to just 38,456 in the first three-quarters of 2014 as a result. If stop-and-frisk had caused the ongoing decline in New York's crime rate, its near-absence would logically halt or even reverse that trend. But the city seems to be doing just fine without it: Crime rates are currently at two-decade lows, with homicide down 7 percent and robberies down 14 percent since 2013.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/why-the-right-should-oppose-the-nypds-flagrant-insubordination/384140/

As a ploy in contract negotiations, this tactic may prove effective, but it puts the NYPD in an unenviable position with respect to explaining what happens next. If this significant work slowdown has basically no effect on the safety of New York City, the NYPD's prior policing will appear to have been needlessly aggressive, and the case for deploying more cops on the street in the future will be undermined. Scott Shackford zeroes in on this line from the Post article: "... cops were turning a blind eye to some minor crimes and making arrests only 'when they have to' since the execution-style shootings of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu."

He riffs:

Well, we can only hope the NYPD unions and de Blasio settle their differences soon so that the police can go back to arresting people for reasons other than "when they have to."
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Did nobody up there watch The Wire?
 
Since there is a union involved here I know it's not this simple, but couldn't the city, when doing their next budget say that the reduction in enforcement had no real effect and therefore the NYPD budget will take a significant funding cut? That's one way to save on that $60 million they're going to lose.

Edit: if that $60 million is coming mostly from low income communities (just a hunch), how much does it benefit those communities to keep that money in their own local economies?
 
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Good article. Seems like a lot there for a lot of people to get behind.

Deadbolt, it seems like the NYC government is giving voluntary tax cuts and reducing their budget in a move that will greatly benefit everybody except the unionized cops who eventually get let go.
 
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has there really been enough time to talk about the 'benefits of non-enforcement'?
 
PhDeac said:
Agree with the positives of the lack of focus on petty crime. Seems like NYC could let some cops go if they're reducing their own workload and they can't just harass people for no reason anymore.
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Yeah but from a safety and operational standpoint you do need to enforce traffic violations and parking issues in NYC for the City to function. My house is somewhat in the middle of nowhere and there are never any cops around, so I routinely run red lights and blow stop signs (after checking to make sure nobody is coming) because the chances of me getting a ticket are next to none. If people start blowing reds in NYC because they know they won't get a ticket, you'll have a lot of accidents and dead pedestrians. And if you don't enforce alternate side of the street parking, then that means no garbage collection and/or snowplows. So you can't just let that stuff go in that type of urban environment, there are reasons the laws exist other than just revenue.
 
I'm sure there are a lot of interesting conversations being had behind closed doors given that the city is currently negotiating a new contract with the union. But I'm not that optimistic that this will demonstrate that they don't need to arrest so many people for petty crimes. The police commissioner, hired by de Blasio, is a huge proponent of broken windows policing.

I do think it is a little funny that the police are protesting by basically giving the protesters what they want.
 
If the NYPD continues this, they may have a new opponent- the prison guards unions. Less arrests will equal less jobs for the guards and certainly less overtime.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
Yeah but from a safety and operational standpoint you do need to enforce traffic violations and parking issues in NYC for the City to function. My house is somewhat in the middle of nowhere and there are never any cops around, so I routinely run red lights and blow stop signs (after checking to make sure nobody is coming) because the chances of me getting a ticket are next to none. If people start blowing reds in NYC because they know they won't get a ticket, you'll have a lot of accidents and dead pedestrians. And if you don't enforce alternate side of the street parking, then that means no garbage collection and/or snowplows. So you can't just let that stuff go in that type of urban environment, there are reasons the laws exist other than just revenue.
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Parking? Yes. Traffic? Probably not. The safety concerns take care of themselves. The risks of running a red light in a high density area is getting in a major accident not simply getting a ticket because only a cop is around.
 
I can fully support private employees organizing and exercising their rights under the NLRA. I have a much harder time with public employee unions.
 
Has anyone checked the stats on traffic cameras yet to see if they are racist? A lot of baby cameras grew up with white privilege.
 
NYPD cops told no vacations until work slowdown ends

“And the majority of [new] summonses written aren’t protecting the public in any way.

“But now they’re realizing how much revenue the city is losing and they’re enforcing their will upon us,” he said.
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The lieutenant ordered sector cars from throughout the precinct to converge at Springfield Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue for a driver checkpoint, the officer said.

No one was to return to the precinct or even take a meal break until two summonses were logged, the officer said.
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It seems this message board has collectively dismissed the validity of the broken windows theory of policing. I'm sure like everything else around here you have the data to back up that opinion.
 
Let's just keep the current level of police activity for a year or so and see if major crime skyrockets.
 
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