The video pertaining to the Bethel Heights Police Department on framing innocent civilians for traffic violations is not surprising (LRJTV, 2013). Police forces across the nation are witness to job cuts, budget reductions, infrastructural compromises, and the recipient of several unpopular policies. This police chief is obviously worried that one of these restrictions will apply to his Police Force if the numbers in crime dwindled. However, there are two aspects of this scenario that defy logical reasoning. A Police force can always divert resources for Community Policing initiatives and even seek Federal funding for the initiative. This move will force City officials to avoid subjecting the Police to any restrictive or unpopular policies. Secondly, it is shocking how the tools used by Police to prevent crime are in use today to create crime in places that are devoid of it.
COMSTAT is an application that takes input of police reports and identifies areas that are susceptible to a particular type of criminal activity. This allows the police to plan on how to organize their beats to prevent or reduce crimes in certain neighborhoods. However, this application’s data is subject to modification at any time. A recent audit of the New York Police Department (NYPD) by two scholars reveals that COMSTAT is misused. Police personnel use it to downgrade the type of criminal activity in order to achieve lower crime rates (Morganteen, 2013). The absence of traffic violations might indicate a COMSTAT misuse problem within the Bethel Heights Police Department. Instead of going after innocent people, this Chief of Police is better of investigating whether the data on COMSTAT is accurate.
Unpopular policies towards Police Departments in several parts of the country are changing our societal guardians into an elite version of corruption. The job of a Police Officer is perhaps the most stressful in the country today. The least City and State Administrations can do is to leave them out of budget cuts. The allies of the United States are providing their police personnel with the fastest cars and the best technology to combat crime and build relationships with the public by using our ideas on community policing (Graaf, 2013). It is high time we started some initiatives on similar lines.
References
Graaf, M. D. (2013). Cop gear: Dubai police force’s latest squad car a £170,000, 207mph McLaren MP4-12C that joins a fleet including a Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley, and Ferrari. Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529963/Cop-gear-Dubai-police-forces-latest-squad-car-170-000-207mph-McLaren-MP4-12C-joins-fleet-including-Lamborghini-Aston-Martin-Bentley-Ferrari.html
LRJTV Staff [lrjtv] (17 August 2013). Exposed Police Chief Pushing Ticket Quotas [video file]. Video retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DWjdHQZCXU&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1
Morganteen, J. (2013). What the CompStat audit reveals about the NYPD. Retrieved from: http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2013/07/03/compstat/
