Police in Chicago will no longer be able to chase suspects that flee from them in most circumstances. NBC News. Police will only be able to begin a foot pursuit if they suspect the suspect has or will commit a felony, a class A misdemeanor or certain driving offenses. Police will not be able to detain people suspected of minor crimes such as public drinking or parking violations, even if they run. The policy was in response to a pair of black men who ended up dead in foot pursuits.
My Comment:
This is an idiotic policy and it's the kind of thing that will cause crime to spike. Which is really saying something since Chicago has some of the worst crime in the country. Chicago has had more than 200 murders in April and has had many more since then. The city regularly sees over 500 homicides and is wracked by other violent crimes, including regular shootings.
The police are now going to be hamstrung even more and won't be able to confront people who run away from them. There is no valid reason to run from police, the only reason you would do so is because you committed a crime. That means even more crimes will go unsolved and the people that would have been caught in foot pursuits.
And I don't care at all about the fact that police might shoot a criminal or two if they are allowed to pursue them. Cops killing criminals is not a serious problem. And most of the time those killings are totally justified.
I'm going to go back to my college days and explain a common concept in policing. It is called broken windows policing. It basically states that police should focus on smaller crimes as getting those people off the streets will reduce crime. It also states that focusing on public order crimes gives the impression that people can't get away with crime, thus deterring it.
Police have largely moved on from broken windows policing and have changed to focusing on community focused policing. Though community focused policing has advantages, it has proven to be a failure as communities now reject the police regardless of the job they are doing. Because the media misinforms people on police shootings they are now demonized even more than they were before.
Chicago seems to be using neither approach and just seems to be ceding criminality in much of the city. If cops can't even chase criminals what incentive is there to not run away from every crime you commit in Chicago? It's basically a free pass unless you get reported or the police see you commit a crime. It seems like a great place to be a criminal. Instead of being proactive by either focusing on small crimes or trying to work with the community, they are raising the white flag and just saying "it's ok to commit crime, we can do nothing to stop you.
And they wonder why crime is exploding nationally? Why wouldn't it? Cops can't do their jobs and criminals are given a free reign to do what they want. Indeed, I think the only reason the crime hasn't spread out of the cities is because most Americans in the suburbs and rural areas are armed, and they are working on changing that as well.
I can't understand why anyone would want to be a police officer in Chicago. Not only are you not allowed to effectively do your job, but if something happens the government will not even pretend to have your back. I don't understand why these cops don't just resign and get a better job somewhere else.
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