Posted by
Mostly Genius – December 18, 2008
Orlando police chief’s top goal for 2009 is to take guns away from criminals
The article doesn’t explain how the police chief is going to go about accomplishing this, and I am sure the devil is in the details:
“It’s going to take a whole lot of people to help us do that,” said Demings, who pledged to work closely with the public, prosecutors and legislators for stricter gun control.
“It’s not about keeping guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens who have every right to possess them,” she said. “Our initiative will focus on the people who are not supposed to have them.”
The most interesting bit of the article is here:
Data released Wednesday show the male murder victims and suspects share a common background of repeated arrests without imprisonment.
At least 95 percent of the victims and suspects had criminal histories. One-third of the suspects had been arrested at least 20 times. One quarter of the victims had been arrested at least 10 times. And about 40 percent of the suspects and victims had been busted for dealing drugs.
If 95% of the people getting murdered are actually criminals then taking guns away from them has a very good chance of increasing other types of crime. The sample size is pretty small here, but it would be interesting to know how many people killed by firearms (other than suicides) are in fact criminals.
Posted by
Mostly Genius – December 9, 2008
Death By SWAT
This is a very good article that illustrates why SWAT raids are such a poor general-purpose, law enforcement tactic.
A Denver Post investigation found that in 80 percent of no-knock raids conducted in Denver in 1999, police assertions that there would be weapons in the targeted home turned out to be wrong. A separate investigation by the Rocky Mountain News found that of the 146 no-knock warrants served in Denver in 1999, just 49 resulted in criminal charges, and only two resulted in prison time.
A 30% arrest rate is very poor performance for such a dangerous, high-risk, tactic. I have to wonder about the financial costs associated with the other 70% of the raids: wasted hours in training, planning and execution, lawsuits and settlements, medical costs for injuries, etc. Those costs could get pretty high for operations that don’t even produce arrests, let alone convictions.
Particularly telling is the mindset expressed here:
Lima police apparently aren’t as concerned. When told of the Lima News investigation, police spokesman Kevin Martin said, “That means 68 percent of the time, we’re getting guns or drugs off the street. We’re not looking at it as a win-loss record like a football team does.”
Clearly this police spokesman doesn’t pay attention to the metrics, and doesn’t understand the tactics employed. One of the major arguments for using Dynamic Entries against drug dealers is to prevent them from destroying evidence. If SWAT raids are turning up drugs but not convictions then ultimately the destruction of evidence (which also gets drugs off the streets) is the best outcome they normally achieve. If arrests and convictions are not the ultimate goal then giving the criminals ample opportunity to flush or destroy the drugs would be just as effective and far less dangerous for all involved.
Posted by
Mostly Genius – November 24, 2008
Recent crimes on Treasure Coast stir fears over people impersonating law enforcement — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Apparently there have been a number of people impersonating police officers. The newspaper offers the following advice:
-Call 911 and give your location and tell your concerns. The dispatcher will be able to verify the person is a law enforcement officer. The caller can say, “I’m being pulled over. I’m not trying to evade the officer but I will pull over at a secure location.”
-Drive the posted speed limit and stop in a secure, well-lit location.
-Ask the person for identification. Besides a badge, law enforcement officers carry an identification card with the officer’s name and signature of the police chief or sheriff.
-Also, 911 can be called to verify if an out-of-state law enforcement officer stops you. The proper procedure is for any non-local law enforcement officer, including federal agents, to notify local law enforcement agencies whenever they are in their jurisdiction.
-Be polite and courteous and follow the person’s instructions. In rare cases, officers could ask for a Social Security number if the person doesn’t have a driver’s license, state identification card or passport.
Most of this doesn’t seem like bad advice, but I don’t think checking a police officers ID is going to help you too much. I doubt that I could spot a fake police ID.
This is essentially an attack against the implicit trust system that law enforcement officers exist within. Somebody in a suit with a gun and a badge is probably going to be able to pass as law enforcement without question among most people who aren’t law enforcement officers.
Posted by
Mostly Genius – November 20, 2008
Citizen-led crime-reporting initiatives
Interesting article about mapping the incidents of crime. There is no technical or economic reason why you can’t real-time map 911 Calls. If the getting the exact street address is an issue then just reduce the granularity. If the goal is to keep people from blundering into dangerous situations then alerting people to current incidents in a region rather than at a point is the way to go. If we consider the real time traffic maps, this should be an easier problem.
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