LAKEVIEW CRIME WAVE CONTINUES: 7 robbed overnight by gun (tax, airport)

[Army_Guy]

Originally Posted by ptug101

One option is to maybe use the U.S military budget and just flood the cities and inner cities with cops, but usually after 300 cops per capita,the gains you make in safety start to diminish. does anybody know how many cops NY has per citizen vs Chicago

Police state is not a good option. Crime would merely be displaced, not prevented.

So the cops would just be on every corner, blatant crime would stop. What would the cops do? They'd be told they'd have to start justifying their salaries and become revenue collectors.

[urza216]

Originally Posted by Army_Guy

Police state is not a good option. Crime would merely be displaced, not prevented.

So the cops would just be on every corner, blatant crime would stop. What would the cops do? They'd be told they'd have to start justifying their salaries and become revenue collectors.

Never has so much sense been said on City Data. I suspect you're wasting your breath though (or your time spent typing that).

This forum is filled with calls for more police, on both sides of the arguments.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by ptug101

does anybody know how many cops NY has per citizen vs Chicago

Both NYC and LA have fewer officers per capita than Chicago. Chicago actually has one of the highest police/citizen ratios in the country.

The Los Angeles Police Department protects its city with only one officer for every 426 residents. As a point of comparison, New York City boasts one NYPD officer for every 228 residents. For Los Angeles to have the same ratio of officers as New York City, the LAPD would need to add nearly 17,000 officers. Further points of comparison include Chicago, which has a ratio of one officer per 216 citizens and Philadelphia, whose officer per citizen ratio is 1 to 219.[62]

While I certainly have no problems with more officers on the street, that is not enough to solve the problem. The problems in Chicago are related to the nature of gangs in the city and how they operate, combined with the fact that Chicago has always been a major transport/distribution hub for the country (and that includes transporting and distributing drugs).

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Attrill

Both NYC and LA have fewer officers per capita than Chicago. Chicago actually has one of the highest police/citizen ratios in the country.

LA also has the LA County Sheriffs office which has thousands of employees patroling areas of the city (joint effort) and NYC has twice as many officers per square mile as Chicago. Of course they have three times as many people, but it would be nice to have more saturation in Chicago as opposed to just more spread over 240 square miles.

The gangs and culture of violence in many neighborhoods of the city is the huge concern, certainly not just throwing more police at the crime that's already happened. Find out WHY these people are being violent against other members of their community and attack that problem, don't just try to sweep them off the streets after they're already a lost cause. The biggest issue is the home life and parenting of these kids.

[Army_Guy]

It's been years since I've lived in the area and I don't keep up very much but I've also read that the Cook County criminal justice system is backed up beyond belief. I've also read that sentences are not that severe so the punishment isn't detering would be offenders.

I do realize that CPD is understaffed though and it's just amazing how the Chief goes on TV and says that they'll just take guys out of their administrative positions or shift manpower from elsewhere. I mean, if you don't have enough, you just don't have enough. If you owe $500 but only have $100, you're still in the red no matter if that $100 came from your right pocket, left pocket or rear pocket.

[Chi-town Native]

CPD is beyond understaffed, and it shows not just in violent crime but also in the neighborhoods, where now people are being completely bold in terms of illegally parking (think, in front of hydrants and actually blocking curb cuts for crosswalks), whereas in the past that kind of crap got you a ticket.

[lenniel]

Chicago should implement Stop n Frisk like NY did.

[Army_Guy]

Originally Posted by lenniel

Chicago should implement Stop n Frisk like NY did.

Umm, so you want your Constitutional rights invaded like that?

So for no reasonable suspicion or probably cause, you want the police to just be able to stop and frisk people?

Nope, I don't see anything bad coming out of that at all...

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by Army_Guy

Umm, so you want your Constitutional rights invaded like that?

So for no reasonable suspicion or probably cause, you want the police to just be able to stop and frisk people?

Nope, I don't see anything bad coming out of that at all...

The statistics of the success of the program in NY don't lie.

Do you think it should be the law that you have to wear a seatbelt? Is that invading your rights?

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by lenniel

The statistics of the success of the program in NY don't lie.

Only if your definition of "success" includes people being harassed based on their skin color.