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What is the crime rate in Chicago? Has the crime rate increased or decreased in Chicago? Does people feel safer living in Chicago ? The role of police is to

What is the crime rate in Chicago? Has the crime rate increased or decreased in Chicago? Does people feel safer living in Chicago ? The role of police is to reduce crime in Chicago. Is it working?

excerionsforte 6y ago
Pretty sure areas with high crime are the ideal place you'd want to study how police officers deal with citizens there. What do these questions have to do in particular with the subject at hand anyway? Furthermore police depts are reluctant to release this kind of data. The work that had to be done to get this data to get this kind of study done in the first place... Is this a study about police and no police and the effects it has on crime rates? Not sure what you were reading.
- dash2 6y ago
  The point is that there are two explanations for the difference observed. One is that white police make the correct amount of arrests, and black police make too few. Another is that white police make too many arrests, and black police make the right amount. The paper seems to assume the latter (I only scanned it very quickly). Perhaps to someone who lives in Chicago, it’s “obvious” which of these is true. But that’s not usually good enough for science: we want to base our claims on evidence, not on our intuitions.
  - jariel 6y ago
    Yes, but we of course know it's way more complicated than 'too few or many arrests'. As to the OP, I would argue the job of police is really to just 'keep a lid on things'. We don't not run around killing each other because 'policing' - we don't do it because it's immoral, wrong, self-defeating etc.. Solving 'high crime' probably necessitates a whole slew of social things, including policing - and once the situation arrives at something resembling civil, the police deal with crimes that are more or less rare and on the margins. Or more serious things like organized crime. In my suburban upbringing I barely ever saw police, and I think I had one interaction with them regarding a traffic ticket. It's literally the only time I've had an interaction with law enforcement growing up. I didn't know a single person growing up who interacted with the police in any more than those terms. If you can get a community to that point of stability/baseline prosperity, policing is something different entirely than 'there are 50 people shot this weekend, gangs control parts of town, kids going to school face real violence'.
worik 6y ago
"The role of police is to reduce crime" It is a bit more than that.

What is the crime rate in Chicago? Has the crime rate increased or decreased in Chicago? Does people feel safer living in Chicago ? The role of police is to reduce crime in Chicago. Is it working?

excerionsforte 6y ago

Pretty sure areas with high crime are the ideal place you'd want to study how police officers deal with citizens there. What do these questions have to do in particular with the subject at hand anyway? Furthermore police depts are reluctant to release this kind of data. The work that had to be done to get this data to get this kind of study done in the first place... Is this a study about police and no police and the effects it has on crime rates? Not sure what you were reading.

dash2 6y ago
The point is that there are two explanations for the difference observed. One is that white police make the correct amount of arrests, and black police make too few. Another is that white police make too many arrests, and black police make the right amount. The paper seems to assume the latter (I only scanned it very quickly). Perhaps to someone who lives in Chicago, it’s “obvious” which of these is true. But that’s not usually good enough for science: we want to base our claims on evidence, not on our intuitions.
- jariel 6y ago
  Yes, but we of course know it's way more complicated than 'too few or many arrests'. As to the OP, I would argue the job of police is really to just 'keep a lid on things'. We don't not run around killing each other because 'policing' - we don't do it because it's immoral, wrong, self-defeating etc.. Solving 'high crime' probably necessitates a whole slew of social things, including policing - and once the situation arrives at something resembling civil, the police deal with crimes that are more or less rare and on the margins. Or more serious things like organized crime. In my suburban upbringing I barely ever saw police, and I think I had one interaction with them regarding a traffic ticket. It's literally the only time I've had an interaction with law enforcement growing up. I didn't know a single person growing up who interacted with the police in any more than those terms. If you can get a community to that point of stability/baseline prosperity, policing is something different entirely than 'there are 50 people shot this weekend, gangs control parts of town, kids going to school face real violence'.

worik 6y ago

"The role of police is to reduce crime" It is a bit more than that.