Lack of ample personnel in police force is commonly quoted as one of main reasons of increasing crime rate in cities. Politicians, people and even police chiefs keep saying that lack of police force is behind the swelling criminal activities. One of common solutions, suggested by many people, is “more cops are required”. This paper proposes a discussion on crime prevention and further analyses how lack of police force affects the prevention of crime.
Establishing safety of people and their property is the fundamental duty of police. Ensuring people’s life and their property is not only the fundamental human rights but at the same time doing so is necessary for the quality of life, but increasing crime suggests that it is not an easy task. Swelling criminal activities and the complicated nature of crime have emerged as a pain for police department. Police fails in controlling crimes in various cities and criticised for their failure. Lack of police force affects the working of police but this is the partial truth and not the whole (Maciag, 2014).
I live in the city of Baltimore where police deployment is the highest among US cities, but at the same time the city is one of the worst crime affected cities of the United States. Lack of police force plays a crucial role in crime prevention but there are some other aspects of the issue. If the available police personnel are deployed strategically, it may play a significant role in the crime prevention. Individuals can take care of their places, shops and communities at their own. Police can neither be provided to every individual, nor should it be unnecessarily deployed at shopping malls and other unnecessary places.
Reference
Maciag, M. (2014, May 09). Which Cities Have the Biggest Police Presence? Retrieved July 2, 2015, from Governing: http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-cities-with-the-greatest-police-presence-most-officers-per-capita.html
