{"id":1565876,"date":"2022-07-22T08:05:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T12:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1565876"},"modified":"2022-07-22T08:22:15","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T12:22:15","slug":"ferguson-effect-police-arrests-have-plummeted-across-the-country-but-little-agreement-on-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ferguson-effect-police-arrests-have-plummeted-across-the-country-but-little-agreement-on-why\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFerguson Effect?\u201d Police Arrests Have Plummeted Across The Country But Little Agreement On Why"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fferguson-effect-police-arrests-have-plummeted-across-the-country-but-little-agreement-on-why%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1565876&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><em>By Tom Gantert, Elyse Apel and Brett Rowland (The Center Square)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Cities across the country have reported a significant drop in police arrests in a trend that started as far back as 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/missouri\/felony-arrests-drop-by-almost-half-over-the-past-10-years-in-countrys-most-dangerous\/article_8da6adae-016b-11ed-952f-c3721d706fa0.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">St. Louis<\/a><\/strong>, San Antonio,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/georgia\/more-sworn-law-enforcement-officers-in-atlanta-but-arrests-fall-65-from-peak\/article_99e3bb88-f884-11ec-97a7-63f93aedfbc0.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Atlanta<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/pennsylvania\/arrests-fall-57-in-philadelphia\/article_360f6b76-fc98-11ec-bf9b-17ae3785b383.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Philadelphia<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/issues\/crime\/ann-arbor-police-officer-retires-over-mob-mentality-police-enforcement-tumbles\/article_519e37e6-01e3-11ed-83b4-cf520b62ff25.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ann Arbor<\/a><\/strong>, Michigan, are just some of the cities that have reported significant drops in police enforcement without an accompanying drop in serious crime.<\/p>\n<p>The police enforcement trend also included a significant drop in parking and traffic violations.<\/p>\n<p>In San Antonio, arrests dropped from a peak of 188,212 in 2015 to 25,036 in 2021. In\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanantonio.gov\/Portals\/0\/Files\/Finance\/FY2021-ComprehensiveAnnualFinancialReport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget documents<\/a><\/strong>, the city of San Antonio explains its reductions in arrests in 2020 and 2021 were due to the pandemic. But in 2019 \u2013 before the pandemic \u2013 arrests dropped in San Antonio to 54,173 \u2013 a 48% drop from the previous year. Parking violations dropped from 78,612 in 2012 to 40,806 in 2021 and traffic violations dropped from 266,157 in 2012 to 66,381 in 2021. The reduction in those statistics also began before the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/surveillance-video-shows-uvalde-police-officers-fist-bumping-using-hand-sanitizer-during-school-massacre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Surveillance Video Shows Uvalde Police Officers Fist-Bumping, Using Hand Sanitizer During School Massacre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Police and city officials from San Antonio, St. Louis, Atlanta and Philadelphia didn\u2019t respond to emails seeking an explanation for the trend. The ACLU and Black Lives Matter did not respond either.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Ann Arbor police officer Eric Ronewicz sent an\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/issues\/crime\/ann-arbor-police-officer-retires-over-mob-mentality-police-enforcement-tumbles\/article_519e37e6-01e3-11ed-83b4-cf520b62ff25.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to his superiors saying he was resigning due to a \u201cmob mentality\u201d that could lead to his arrest even if he abided by the law and city policy over how to engage an uncooperative subject.<\/p>\n<p>The city of Ann Arbor has also seen a 62% decline in arrests from 2012 to 2021.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"subscribe\" class=\"email-signup inarticle\">\n<h4>Support Conservative Voices!<\/h4>\n<h5><strong>Sign up to receive the latest<\/strong> political news, insight, and commentary delivered directly to your inbox.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich in the state of Washington attributed the decline in enforcement to the political climate created by high-profile police incidents over the past eight years.<\/p>\n<p>Knezovich cited the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, the ambush and killing of five police officers in Dallas in 2016 and more recently the death of George Floyd in 2020 as the primary reason for the decline in enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Ferguson Effect is a real thing. Police officers started to back away from enforcement,\u201d Knezovich said. \u201cYou saw it across the nation. You wonder why you see less and less enforcement and more and more crime, it\u2019s woke politicians and activists and the media have made it so. They wanted us to disengage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knezovich called that environment for police in the U.S. \u201ctoxic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have made the environment so toxic that it is very difficult to enforce laws in the United States right now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we wonder why we in police enforcement started to disengage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lex Steppling, national director of campaign and organizing for Los Angeles-based Dignity &#038; Power Now, said the \u201cFerguson Effect\u201d is a myth, adding that many communities didn\u2019t trust police before Ferguson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat most everyone cares about is being safe. Do they [police] keep us safe? Police kill a lot of people. Police hurt a lot of people,\u201d Steppling said.<\/p>\n<p>Steppling said police could be protesting criticism of departments after numerous high-profile incidents by refusing to arrest people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are aware that police sometimes go on informal strikes when they don\u2019t like the political climate they are in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Steppling said fewer arrests are a good thing because more arrests just creates economic disparities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/video-emerges-of-toddlers-hitting-and-cursing-at-police-officers-saying-shut-up-bh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Video Emerges Of Toddlers Hitting And Cursing At Police Officers, Saying \u2018Shut Up B***h!\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrimes like rape and murder, the clearance rate on that is extremely low. They [police] do a very poor job of solving important crimes. One can argue, police actually bring violence. They bring a lot of violence, a lot of corruption, a lot of bullying,\u201d Steppling said. \u201cNon law-enforcement solutions to social problems tend to work a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steppling said the cities with the most arrests are the most dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat should we do? Policing in America doesn\u2019t work if the goal is public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steppling said it was naive to ignore the reality that there does need to be some first responders because there are situations that involve violence and weapons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that\u2019s extremely rare and deserves a very specialized narrow approach. Most social problems are only made worse by policing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dignity &#038; Power Now is based in Los Angeles, which has reported a reduction in arrests, like many other cities.<\/p>\n<p>In Los Angeles,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lacontroller.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/FY21-ACFR-_Final_1.26.22_1230pm_final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">arrests<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0plummeted from 162,698 in 2012 to 66,808 in 2021. Crimes reported have remained relatively level, with 190,542 crimes reported in 2012 and increasing to 191,481 in 2021.<\/p>\n<p><em>Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tom Gantert, Elyse Apel and Brett Rowland (The Center Square) Cities across the country have reported a significant drop in police arrests in a trend that started as far<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1575007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1575007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}