Chief Harrington on Crime Prevention?
Reprinted from Pioneer Press.
Posted on Sun, Sep. 17, 2006
Rely on evidence, not fear, in arguing for more officers
I applaud the St. Paul Police Federation and concerned community members for their interest and concern in the effort to obtain additional police resources. I share their concerns for public safety, yet I feel compelled to respond to questions about some of the operating assumptions being used in the argument for more officers.
As chief, I am a strong advocate for additional police resources, but want to caution that arguing the potential of "Minneapolis problems here" as the sole basis for more officers is misleading.
Even during the chief of police selection process, I voiced my belief that our police department was understaffed and would need to add more officers to keep pace with the growing demands. I have found no compelling research evidence to suggest that adding more police officers automatically results in less crime. There are many strong arguments for more police officers, but we must not fall into the easy trap of thinking more cops equals less crime.
It is important as we look to address concerns about rising crime we use evidence of what is and what is not effective to support our decisions.
As police, our focus is to keep the peace, enforce the law, prevent crime, reduce the harmful effects of crime, and reduce the unrealistic fear of crime. I am concerned that the current well-intentioned and emotionally charged campaign to obtain additional police resources is counter to our focus of reducing the fear of crime.
I have heard from many of our officers they are heartened by the resident involvement and concern over the serious issues of community safety. We all want the very best for this city and are proud to do our part to maintain safe neighborhoods. It is important to remember as this or any other city struggles to find ways to reduce crime and enhance safety, the debate must be based upon sound assumptions and not fear.
As the people of this city and its leaders struggle to respond to growing crime concerns, the focus should be on what works for the specific problems that are identified.
St. Paul did have a small increase in serious crime between 2004 and 2005. The increase, while unacceptable, is growing slower than the pace of Midwest region overall. Over the past nine months, we have tracked an average increase of nearly 1,000 quality-of-life type calls, such as disorderly person, fights, loitering, etc., each month. While our serious crime numbers show a rather marginal increase, we cannot forget the increases do represent real crimes, with real victims, who endured very real harm.
No one can argue against the idea that having more officers will provide us with the time and resources to better and more completely work with our partners in government, business, education, and neighborhood groups to address the root causes of crime. More cops will allow our officers time to realistically assess and solve problems. We will be able to improve our response time to calls for service and have the resources to more completely investigate more crimes. And finally, we can make sustainable efforts to reduce the fear of crime and allow thoughtful, evidence-based decisions about what works guide our strategies and action plan.
Over the last several years we have implemented several initiatives, such as the gang unit, police activities leagues, and the expansion of the domestic violence and sex offender tracking units, which, studies show, directly reduce crime. Currently, we are engaged in the comprehensive process of developing our public safety action plan for 2007. While we believe these initiatives have been part of our success in slowing crime growth, the use of these proven strategies reduces our police staffing to answer calls for service and provide follow-up investigations.
There will be many who use stories or anecdote to guide their arguments for more officers. While those stories may provide a point of reference, we know that crime is complex, and so are the solutions to addressing it.
Mayor Coleman has committed to the addition of 100 officers during his term of office, demonstrating his commitment to public safety. Members of the city council have taken the initial steps to provide resources to meet our most urgent public safety needs. More cops are a great first step in making St. Paul a safer city. Putting these officers to the best use by planning and working with our city partners is crucial to our success.
We must come together not in fear but in partnership to positively impact the quality of life for the people who live, work and visit St. Paul.
John M. Harrington is chief of police in St. Paul.
Posted on Sun, Sep. 17, 2006
Rely on evidence, not fear, in arguing for more officers
I applaud the St. Paul Police Federation and concerned community members for their interest and concern in the effort to obtain additional police resources. I share their concerns for public safety, yet I feel compelled to respond to questions about some of the operating assumptions being used in the argument for more officers.
As chief, I am a strong advocate for additional police resources, but want to caution that arguing the potential of "Minneapolis problems here" as the sole basis for more officers is misleading.
Even during the chief of police selection process, I voiced my belief that our police department was understaffed and would need to add more officers to keep pace with the growing demands. I have found no compelling research evidence to suggest that adding more police officers automatically results in less crime. There are many strong arguments for more police officers, but we must not fall into the easy trap of thinking more cops equals less crime.
It is important as we look to address concerns about rising crime we use evidence of what is and what is not effective to support our decisions.
As police, our focus is to keep the peace, enforce the law, prevent crime, reduce the harmful effects of crime, and reduce the unrealistic fear of crime. I am concerned that the current well-intentioned and emotionally charged campaign to obtain additional police resources is counter to our focus of reducing the fear of crime.
I have heard from many of our officers they are heartened by the resident involvement and concern over the serious issues of community safety. We all want the very best for this city and are proud to do our part to maintain safe neighborhoods. It is important to remember as this or any other city struggles to find ways to reduce crime and enhance safety, the debate must be based upon sound assumptions and not fear.
As the people of this city and its leaders struggle to respond to growing crime concerns, the focus should be on what works for the specific problems that are identified.
St. Paul did have a small increase in serious crime between 2004 and 2005. The increase, while unacceptable, is growing slower than the pace of Midwest region overall. Over the past nine months, we have tracked an average increase of nearly 1,000 quality-of-life type calls, such as disorderly person, fights, loitering, etc., each month. While our serious crime numbers show a rather marginal increase, we cannot forget the increases do represent real crimes, with real victims, who endured very real harm.
No one can argue against the idea that having more officers will provide us with the time and resources to better and more completely work with our partners in government, business, education, and neighborhood groups to address the root causes of crime. More cops will allow our officers time to realistically assess and solve problems. We will be able to improve our response time to calls for service and have the resources to more completely investigate more crimes. And finally, we can make sustainable efforts to reduce the fear of crime and allow thoughtful, evidence-based decisions about what works guide our strategies and action plan.
Over the last several years we have implemented several initiatives, such as the gang unit, police activities leagues, and the expansion of the domestic violence and sex offender tracking units, which, studies show, directly reduce crime. Currently, we are engaged in the comprehensive process of developing our public safety action plan for 2007. While we believe these initiatives have been part of our success in slowing crime growth, the use of these proven strategies reduces our police staffing to answer calls for service and provide follow-up investigations.
There will be many who use stories or anecdote to guide their arguments for more officers. While those stories may provide a point of reference, we know that crime is complex, and so are the solutions to addressing it.
Mayor Coleman has committed to the addition of 100 officers during his term of office, demonstrating his commitment to public safety. Members of the city council have taken the initial steps to provide resources to meet our most urgent public safety needs. More cops are a great first step in making St. Paul a safer city. Putting these officers to the best use by planning and working with our city partners is crucial to our success.
We must come together not in fear but in partnership to positively impact the quality of life for the people who live, work and visit St. Paul.
John M. Harrington is chief of police in St. Paul.
posted by Bob at Sunday, September 17, 2006
8 Comments:
Isn't this cute. The chief wants everyone to work in partnership, but he has all the nieghbors snitching out the tenants, his good for nothing cops snitching out the landlords, neighbors, landlords & tenants fighting with each other, everyone mistrusting of everyone else, tenants afraid to call the police, (according to KSTP story earlier in the year)and this piece of crap is has the nerve to even mention quality of life.
I am afraid this statement by Harrington sums up business as usual.
Working in cooperation I assume with code enforcement to close down affordable housing and destroy the nest to get rid of the critter.
You would think being black and all he would be concerned about the efforts by the City to decrease affordable housing.
After all, one only has to drive through black neighborhoods on the East side and in Frog Town to see the vacant registered building notices.
A black family once lived in most of these homes.
Chief Harrington supports closing up these houses. It is called the "broken windows theory". It is also safer than getting shot at by a drug dealer. Check it out on the WEB, and you decide if it has worked good for St. Paul.
We need some honest politicians that are going to put forth some honest policies that get some results instead of all this BS all the time about problem properties. It's problem people both in the neighborhoods and city hall, not problem houses. Do they really think we are so stupid that we are going to keep buying into their deception?
Reprinted from SPIF-
To: stpaul-issues@forums.e-democracy.org
From: "Mike Mischke" mmischke@myvillager.com
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:09:30 -0500
Subject: SPIF How many cops are enough?
Does the level of crime on the streets of St. Paul warrant the hiring
of 100 to 200 more police officers, as the St. Paul Police Federation
believes? Or 25 more, as some members of the St. Paul City Council
contend? Or 16, as last week's City Council-approved maximum 9.9
percent property tax levy increase for 2007 would provide for?
Or is the magic number 20, as my former high school classmate, former
St. Paul Police Federation president and retired career St. Paul
patrolman Butch Swintek argues?
In all four cases, it should be noted, the number of sworn officers
in St. Paul would rise from the current 580 to the highest level in
the city's history. And this at a time when the city's population is
4 percent lower than its historic high.
Walking a tightrope in a guest editorial published in last Sunday's
Pioneer Press, Police Chief John Harrington attempted to strike a
balance between the demands for more cops on the street and the
unfounded fear of increasing crime that has incited those demands.
"As police, our focus is to keep the peace, enforce the law, prevent
crime, reduce the harmful effects of crime and reduce the unrealistic
fear of crime," Harrington wrote. "I am concerned that the current
well-intentioned and emotionally charged campaign to obtain
additional police resources is counter to our focus of reducing the
fear of crime."
Indeed, proponents of hiring more cops can find little statistical
support for their position from the police department's own records
of serious crime incidents over the years. However, serious crime, or
what in police parlance goes by the name of Part I crime (i.e.,
murder, rape, aggravated assault, arson, auto theft and burglary),
paints only part of the picture.
"When I came on the force in 1975, the 500-plus sworn officers we had
was probably enough," Swintek said. "But the call load has increased
hugely since then, primarily due to so-called quality-of-life issues."
According to Tom Walsh, a former St. Paul police sergeant and
currently the police department's information coordinator, quality-of-
life calls are those for a grab bag of petty crimes and suspected
crimes that nonetheless can make neighborhoods seem unsafe. Thirty
years ago, he said, the total call load in St. Paul rarely exceeded
100,000 a year. As of August, the police department had already
responded to 190,000 calls this year, according to him.
Ward 3 City Council member Patrick Harris, who represents much of the
area served by the Villager, sought to strike a balance of his own in
opposing the 9.9 percent levy increase that would pay for 16 more
police officers in 2007. Harris believes that there is a need for
more police officers on the street. However, he also believes that
the 9.9 percent city levy increase, coupled with the proposed levy
increase by Ramsey County and the levy referendum being pushed by the
St. Paul Public Schools, would place a significantly greater
financial burden on his constituents in the Highland Park and
Macalester-Groveland neighborhoods, people who pay some of the
highest property taxes in St. Paul. "We can’t just keep going back to
the taxpayers and asking them for more and more," Harris said. "I
believe there's a threshold at which our city is no longer affordable."
Swintek, a resident of Merriam Park, another high-taxed St. Paul
neighborhood, appreciates Harris' concern. At the same time, he noted
that residents of the southwestern quarter of St. Paul would probably
be shocked to know how few police cars are patrolling their streets
at any given time today. Back in the late-1970s when the concept of
team policing was introduced, there were five two-man patrol cars
simultaneously working that end of town, according to him. With
stretched resources reallocated to more high-crime neighborhoods of
the city, "I’m betting there aren't more than two one-man cars
patrolling that area today," he said.
Swintek firmly believes that St. Paul needs 600 sworn officers to
"get to and stay at" the level of police service the city used to
enjoy. "I don’t think it's fear-mongering," he said of the red flags
the Police Federation has raised in referring to Minneapolis' well-
publicized problems with violent crime. "I applaud the Federation for
bringing up the issue."
Michael Mischke
Summit Hill, St. Paul
More info: http://forums.e-democracy.org/stpaul/contacts/michaelmischke
More cops than ever before in city history, but at a time when the city's population is 4% lower than any time previous. Sounds to me like the city has attacted the wrong kinds of people to town, but then what would you expect? The people making the problems are NEVER held responsible for their actons, the landlords who rent to them are held responsible instead. With no consequences, how can one honestly expect anything but growing problems....but then what would anything even relating to "honest" have to do with the city of St. Paul?
Watch the population decrease even more, isn't that what the city wants? It is the city chasing people out, who in the right mind wants to pay taxes and mortgage payments all their life for retirement only to find out that the city has a different retirement home plan for them, I think most people would rather live in a community where they still have a few rights left, and St.Paul is not one of those communities. Why would anyone want to live not knowing if that knock on the door is your 24 hour notice to hit the road, most people like the feeling of home being just that home. Remember the old right to privacy in ones home (also refered to as: (a home is a man castle).No such thing in St.Paul.
Nancy (formerly of St.Paul)
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