<story><title>NYC major crime complaints fell when cops took a break from ‘proactive policing’</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-proactive-policing-crime-20170925-story.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>exogeny</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve lived in a few different major cities and NYC for the last decade, and I can definitely say I have never seen more broken, ineffective policing than here. It&amp;#x27;s truly ridiculous. Your experience, obviously, may vary.&lt;p&gt;Multiple instances of police openly threatening citizens. Phones ripped out of hands and smashed onto the ground, for the mere crime of filming an interaction. During the BLM protests, every single act of instigation and provocation that I witnessed was started by the police.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know what the answer is. But it is very clear the police here are a paramilitary jackboot squad, and that the city and the strength of their union protects them. They have almost complete impunity, and they see normal, everyday citizens as the enemy. I fear that we&amp;#x27;re in for more trouble now that we&amp;#x27;ve elected an ex-cop Mayor of the city.&lt;p&gt;(For background, I&amp;#x27;m a tall, white man. I can&amp;#x27;t imagine how bad it would be if I wasn&amp;#x27;t.)</text></comment>
<story><title>NYC major crime complaints fell when cops took a break from ‘proactive policing’</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-proactive-policing-crime-20170925-story.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nickff</author><text>&amp;gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;“While we cannot entirely rule out the effects of under-reporting,” the authors wrote, “our results show that crime complaints decreased, rather than increased, during a slowdown in proactive policing, contrary to deterrence theory.”&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Each week during the slowdown saw civilians report an estimated 43 fewer felony assaults, 40 fewer burglaries and 40 fewer acts of grand larceny. And this slight suppression of major crime rates actually continued for seven to 14 weeks after those drops in proactive policing — which led the researchers to estimate that overall, the slowdown resulted in about 2,100 fewer major-crimes complaints.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The fact that assaults, robberies, and burglaries aren&amp;#x27;t being reported would seem to indicate that people just weren&amp;#x27;t bothering to contact the police, because they knew the police would not help. Murder, rape, and (hospital-reported) shooting rates dropping would be more indicative that less policing would reduce crime.</text></comment>