Posted on 03/03/2015 4:10:41 AM PST by Freeport
Rather than degenerate into a lawless land where criminals rule the streets, a Texas town that fired its entire police department has seen a 61% decrease is crime.
In 2012, Sharpstown, a community of 66,000 located just southwest of Houston, declined to renew its contract with the constable’s office, essentially dismissing its cops.
Instead, the Sharpstown Civic Association hired SEAL Security Solutions, a private firm, to patrol their streets.
“Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61% in just 20 months," James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL, told guns.com
The private security firm places its officers on continuous patrol in their assigned neighborhoods, as opposed to the strategy of intermittent presence that the constable embraced.
“On a constable patrol contract, it’s either a 70/30 or an 80/20,” Alexander said. “Meaning they say they patrol your community 70 percent of the time, [while] 30 percent of the time they use for running calls out of your area or writing reports.”
SEAL also relies heavily on crime statistics when it designs its patrol efforts.
“The second thing that drastically reduces the crime is that we do directed patrols, meaning we don’t just put an officer out there and say ‘here, go patrol,’” he said. “We look at recent crime stats, and we work off of those crime stats. So if we have hotspots in those areas say for that month, we focus and concentrate our efforts around those hotspots.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sputniknews.com ...
Again... of two minds on this one.
Or maybe the cops were in cahoots with the crime circles?
Who are crimes reported to now?
This article is a little misleading. The title implies that the town completely ditched law enforcement professionals, which is not the case. Instead, they replaced public cops with a private contracted security firm, and the security firm uses data analysis to decide where and how to place its personnel. Furthermore, it appears that there is more on-the-street coverage than when there were public cops.
So it is not a case where a town completely got rid of law enforcement. On the contrary, the town instituted a more effective system of law enforcement.
It reminds me a bit of the David Dinkins admin in NYC deciding to “just not report or prosecute” crime and this would magically make the crime rate drop.
“Who are crimes reported to now?”
I would hazard a guess that crimes & 911 calls are now reported to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Which leads to another question; How much more is this costing HCSO, just answering and maybe solving the 61% fewer crime calls in these suburban towns?
I like it. Actual free market accountability in law enforcement. And no ridiculous public sector pension plans.
Always suspicious when the ones saying crime has dropped are the ones who have a profit motive to not record crimes. Like NYC has done - crime is the same or higher - but they do not call most formerly criminal acts as “crime” and it does not make it into the official reports as a “crime.”
But, replacing a corrupt union run force with a private one could cause such a positive effect. Would need to see if they pulled the trick of redefining terms and methods of reporting “crimes” like NYC did...
That's RACIST!!
Holders attorneys boarding plane as we speak. Law and order plus less government must be stopped.
“On the contrary, the town instituted a more effective system of law enforcement.”
ie, went private. Will it work everywhere? Let’s get Scott Walker to purge the gov’t cops.
Titles are carefully designed to get you to click on the link, not to convey actual information.
Who records a crime? The cops. So you want the reporting of crime to go down, get rid of the cops.
Looks to me like a confirmation that privatization is a better option.
Exactly. There are lots of Detroit neighborhoods with private security. They don’t do criminal investigations or worry about petty crimes. If they see an assault or robbery going on they’ll intervene. They check out dark alleys and keep an eye on buildings for signs of break ins. They harass crack dealers by parking outside crack houses and acting like they’re taking pictures of people going in and out.
They’re actually fairly effective as a preventative measure simply because they’re visible.
My little town got rid of our 5 man police force a few years back. By law we have to contract with the county sheriff for patrols.
It hasn’t really had any effect on crime since the crime rate here is virtually zero.
Funny how things go away when you don’t look...
I heard yesterday that traffic tickets are no being issued at all in the St. Louis area, the cops have stacked arms.
...a Texas town that fired its entire police department has seen a 61% decrease is crime. In 2012, Sharpstown, a community of 66,000 located just southwest of Houston, declined to renew its contract with the constable's office, essentially dismissing its cops. Instead, the Sharpstown Civic Association hired SEAL Security Solutions, a private firm, to patrol their streets.Wait until they cap a perp of color.
They contracted a police force that was more competent than the one they had.
Well guess what. The contractors want to be rehired. This gives them a greater impetus to try to do what is right. None of this yuk yuk yukking over doughnuts. The client matters.
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