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The largest Dutch cities are at best medium-sized in total population and density compared to American cities, though, and a lot richer in wealth per capita. Fo

The largest Dutch cities are at best medium-sized in total population and density compared to American cities, though, and a lot richer in wealth per capita. For example, using 2015 numbers, Amsterdam with 848k people (4.3k per sq mi) wouldn't place on the top 10 list of largest or densest American cities. San Jose, California at #10 has over a million people (5.3k per sq mi). New York City (#1) has 8.5 million people at a density of 27,012 people per square mile. In other words, NYC has over half of the population of all of The Netherlands and roughly 20 times the average density. I don't think you should assume that anything about policing strategy in The Netherlands can be applied to these fairly radically different environments. Edit: I can't reply to the comment below this about education spending. Let's look at the data: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS "Expenditure on education as % of total government expenditure (%)" > Netherlands 12.1% > United States 13.3%

tobltobs 9y ago
Or maybe the difference is just that money goes into education instead of militarization of the police.
Maarten88 9y ago
That can't be right. And it isn't. Maybe you mixed up imperial and metric units? Amsterdam has 12.7k people per sq mi[1]. Not NY-dense, but certainly more dense than San Jose. I am sure that Dutch police get longer and higher education than their US colleagues, on average. But more importantly, I think the culture in the police here is completely different, they attract a different type of character. In the US, using the "soft" approach is not popular with politicians and voters, so the police seems to have developed into an "army-light", attracting mostly "tough guys" who like the use of force. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam
grenoire 9y ago
The nominal ratios spent on education actually do not matter much with a basic comparison because it is not a metric of how efficient that money is used and if citizens get equal benefits from the spending. I am quite certain the Netherlands is better at govt. spending than the US.

tobltobs 9y ago

Or maybe the difference is just that money goes into education instead of militarization of the police.

Maarten88 9y ago

That can't be right. And it isn't. Maybe you mixed up imperial and metric units? Amsterdam has 12.7k people per sq mi[1]. Not NY-dense, but certainly more dense than San Jose. I am sure that Dutch police get longer and higher education than their US colleagues, on average. But more importantly, I think the culture in the police here is completely different, they attract a different type of character. In the US, using the "soft" approach is not popular with politicians and voters, so the police seems to have developed into an "army-light", attracting mostly "tough guys" who like the use of force. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam

grenoire 9y ago

The nominal ratios spent on education actually do not matter much with a basic comparison because it is not a metric of how efficient that money is used and if citizens get equal benefits from the spending. I am quite certain the Netherlands is better at govt. spending than the US.