Should funding for local police departments be redirected to social and community based programs?
No, increase funding and training for police departments in higher crime rate communities
We do not live in a utopian society where the police are unnecessary. "The Ratcliffe et al. study is representative of efforts made to focus preventive police action on “hotspots”, areas in which crime is more concentrated. A recent review (Braga et al., 2019a) suggests that “[t]he extant evaluation research provides fairly robust evidence that hotspots policing is an effective crime prevention strategy” (p. 289). In all 78 studies of hotspot policing interventions discussed in this review, results were explained in terms of deterrence, defined as increased certainty of punishment: the possibility of police interventions, including simple police presence, influenced potential offenders, leading them to refrain from criminal activity and therefore to a decrease in crime rates." (https://crimesciencejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40163-023-00193-4#:~:text=While%20researchers%20have%20tended%20to,concentrated%20policing%20may%20be%20substantial.)
Based on this information, I feel that we can more effectively deter crime, improve communities, and improve peoples' lives. This all comes in conjunction with better and more extensive training, as well as incentives to get better individuals in to police departments.
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