Gregory D.

Lee

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April 21, 2008

100,000 New Cops? More of Hillary’s Unchecked Pandering

The Los Angeles Times reported that on a campaign stop in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton proposed a $4-billion-a-year, anti-crime package that would “put 100,000 new police officers on the streets.”

She claimed that her husband’s administration “reduced crime to historic lows” in the 1990s, and said “we have to get back to doing what we know works.” If her husband’s 100,000 new police officers scheme reduced crime to historic lows during her husband’s administration, then why not add 200,000, or 500,000 more cops now? Keep reading.

Crime dropped to historic lows in the 1990s because Congress and many states adopted sentencing guidelines in the late 1980s that, when coupled with mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws, kept offenders in prisons for significantly longer periods of time, thus reducing crime overall. It’s not rocket science. The warehousing of offenders prevents keeps them from victimizing more people. It’s as simple as that. Hillary would also like to see a reduction in sentencing for “users” of crack cocaine. How would that help reduce crime? But, being a good liberal, Hillary also advocates convicted felons’ voting rights be restored so they’ll vote for Democrats, and she’s her own favorite Democrat.

Funding an additional 100,000 new police officers on the streets didn’t work for her husband and won’t work for her without significant changes.

President Clinton’s version provided matching funds to local law enforcement agencies where the federal government paid half the salary of newly hired officers. Many cities and counties could not fully fund the salaries once the program ended, and officers had to be let go. Many local governments simply took a pass. The number of new officers actually hired was drastically less than the goal of 100,000.

Let’s assume Hillary gets Congress to fully fund the hiring of 100,000 new officers. One measurement of a police officer’s productivity is the number of arrests he or she makes on their own initiative. Most big city cops arrest one or more persons per shift whether they are called to a crime scene or find a crook on their own. If every new officer arrested just one person each day they worked, that would pour 26 million more defendants per year into an already overloaded criminal justice system. Imagine the howl from the liberal Democratic-controlled Congress if 26 million of their constituents suddenly found themselves behind bars. If they were all convicted, where would you house them?

Think I’m not being realistic? OK, then if each new officer averaged only one arrest per week, that amounts to 5.2 million defendants. Same question: Where would you house so many defendants? Many jail and prison facilities are already overcrowded, and some places, such as Los Angeles County and the financially strapped State of California, are seriously considering the early release of less violent offenders in order to make room for others and to cut costs.

Just one arrest per month, per officer, would be an additional 1.2 million defendants that have to be tried and lodged in a jail or prison facility, before and after being convicted. Without also funding a proportionate number of additional prosecutors, public defenders, courtrooms, judges, clerks, stenographers, bailiffs, probation and correctional officers, not to mention the additional prisons that will be needed, a bottleneck occurs, and the entire system collapses under its own weight. The costs involved would run far greater than Hillary’s proposed $4-billion-per-year funding, or the proposed number of officers would have to be scaled back dramatically.

Police departments that are tempted to take the federal money for salaries have to factor in additional costs for recruitment, training and equipping the new officers, assuming they can find them. Only about one in 100 applicants make it all the way through the background investigation, academy training and probationary period. Many departments are recruiting nationwide because of the small pool of qualified applicants in their area.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for putting bad guys in jail. But when you give Hillary’s proposal a reality check, you realize it only amounts to pandering.

Gregory D. Lee is a nationally syndicated columnist who is a retired DEA Supervisory Special Agent and former police officer. He can be reached through his website: www.gregorydlee.com. 

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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