Sunday September 24, 2006
Advice to cops: get out where you can be seen
In the interests of full disclosure – like those pharmaceutical TV ads that take more time telling you about potentially dangerous side effects than what the drug is supposed to do – let me start by admitting that I have never been a member of any police force.
Nor have I been a member of a citizens\’ patrol.
My closest encounters with police (other than receiving parking tickets) came during a summer when I went jogging every day with members of the RCMP detachment in Prince Rupert.
Oh, yes — one of my Scouts later joined the Toronto Police.
So I consider myself as well qualified to write about this subject as childless couples are to advise beleaguered parents about raising kids.
Nevertheless…
Loss of public confidence
The Kelowna Daily Courier\’s front page story, earlier this week, noted that, “Satisfaction with policing levels has fallen by almost half in the last four years…”
The city\’s 2006 Citizen Survey of roughly 1,000 residents found that people\’s sense of safety has declined even more rapidly. In 2002, only 12 per cent of residents felt the city was “somewhat unsafe.” Last year, it was 23 per cent; this year, 28 per cent.
A quick search through the Internet suggests that this is not an uncommon response. A national Gallup poll in the U.S. estimated the confidence level in police forces at just 45 per cent.
In Britain, a BBC report stated, “Public confidence in the police is continuing to fall… The British Audit Commission reports that just one in five people are happy with the number of police on the streets. Less than half are happy with the level of foot patrols by officers.”
Confidence in police has declined, I suggest, in direct proportion to their isolation from the community.
It started when police began patrolling inside squad cars instead of on foot. Cars can cover more territory than feet. And high-speed car chases make more entertaining television than conversations on a sidewalk.
But no one has ever developed a personal relationship with a disembodied face behind safety glass.
Visible presence
Yes, I know, police forces face budget cuts. But I\’m not convinced that financial restrictions alone forced police forces to turn to high-tech tools. I think they made a choice. To solve crimes after they happen, rather than to reduce them by simply being there.
British police have recently started spending more time on the streets. As a police spokesperson said, "The visible presence of police officers makes a great contribution in reassuring the public.”
Precisely.
Even the stupidest crook would think twice before robbing a convenience store that has a uniformed officer chatting with the owner.
The value of having police on the street was dramatically demonstrated when Kimveer Gill carried his arsenal into Dawson College in Montreal, two weeks ago.
Seventeen years earlier, when Marc Lepine started shooting at l\’Ecole Polytechnique, the police followed standard procedures. They called for back up. They brought the SWAT team. They cordoned off the area. When they finally entered the building, they attacked with massive force and efficiency.
In the meantime, 14 women died.
Since then, the Montreal police re-evaluated their tactics. At Dawson College, a local cop was there within minutes. He entered the building. By his presence, he isolated the lone gunman.
And only one person died.
That\’s still one person too many. But it\’s a lot fewer than 14. And there\’s little doubt that if Gill had the time and opportunity, he would have shot a lot more people than he did.
More serious crimes?
In downtown Kelowna, the incidence of crime dropped noticeably after the police re-instituted foot patrols. It wasn\’t that they caught a lot more criminals. There simply weren\’t as many crimes committed.
Every arrest means enough paperwork to make a bureaucrat blanch, and often means coming to court to testify on a day off.
But a crime prevented requires no paperwork at all.
Conversely, the absence of police encourages crime.
In 2005, Grant DePatie, a 24-year-old gas station employee, died trying to stop two teenagers from driving off without paying for $12.30 worth of gas. The car ran over him. DePatie was caught underneath and dragged for seven kilometres.
Despite that tragedy, Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon announced earlier this year that police would not respond to gas-and-dash thefts at service stations. Police resources, he said, were better put to investigating more serious crimes.
Gas-and-dash crimes promptly increased. Why not, if you know that the police will not respond, even if your theft is caught on video?
To their credit, the Kelowna RCMP have since changed their policy.
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Out here in rural Okanagan Centre, lakefront residents report that beach parties had grown significantly noisier, longer, and drunker.
Calls to the police, these residents claim, rarely result in a squad car coming, and never result in charges being laid.
Perhaps attending to a mere beach party would leave the station understaffed at night. Perhaps we\’re too far off the main track to matter. But I\’m sure that some people are more likely to flout the law when they feel beyond the reach of enforcement.
When Ted Fright, owner of the only convenience store along 20 km of shoreline – widely known just as “The Store” – reported a thief breaking into his van, he had to give the constable directions, over the telephone, to come over the hill and down to the scene of the crime.
No police officer will get to know a community, or vice versa, sitting behind a desk.
If having a more visible police presence will cost me extra in taxes, so be it.
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Copyright © 2006 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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