CAUSES OF VIOLENCE: Experts Indicate Crime Can Rise When Funds are Diverted From Police to War and Terrorism

Funds for com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing pro­grams have been sig­nif­i­cant­ly slashed in recent years, a devel­op­ment that experts link to the gov­ern­men­t’s new focus on fight­ing ter­ror­ism. The U.S. Department of Justice pro­vid­ed $7 bil­lion in fed­er­al funds for com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing pro­grams between 1994 and 2001, but it has award­ed only $208 mil­lion for local depart­ments this year. ​“Many of those funds have been shift­ed to home­land secu­ri­ty, which also is very impor­tant in this day and age,” said University of Nevada crim­i­nol­o­gist William Sousa. ​“I think, though, in shift­ing those funds, peo­ple fail to real­ize that … [a] lot of ter­ror­ism goes on that’s home­grown,” he said, point­ing to drug crime.

Many cities have had sig­nif­i­cant drops in the amount of fed­er­al funds they receive for pro­grams such as putting more police offi­cers on the streets and pur­chas­ing equip­ment designed to improve law enforce­men­t’s effi­cien­cy, and have had ris­es in crime. In Philadelphia, fund­ing cuts have reduced the city’s police force from 7,000 in the 1990s to 6,500 today. That city had 406 homi­cides in 2006, a 10-year high, and could exceed that num­ber in 2007. In Camden, New Jersey, the num­ber of uni­formed offi­cers has also dropped and only 20 of the depart­men­t’s 170 police cruis­ers are equipped with com­put­ers. Camden has had 31 homi­cides this year and is like­ly to sur­pass the 33 mur­ders record­ed in 2006. Camden’s police exec­u­tive, Arturo Venegas, observed, ​“Our capac­i­ty for respond­ing and deploy­ing intel­li­gent­ly as to what’s occur­ring in the com­mu­ni­ty — that is dimin­ished. It’s eas­i­er to finance infra­struc­ture in Baghdad than it is to finance infra­struc­ture in Philadelphia or Camden, New Jersey.” Venegas added that fed­er­al funds once allo­cat­ed to train com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers how to col­lab­o­rate with local police were ​“the best tool for ensur­ing home­land secu­ri­ty.”

Though vio­lent crime in most cities is yet to reach the lev­els of the ear­ly 1990s and con­tin­ues to fall in some places, law enforce­ment offi­cials warn that ris­ing crime rates in some cities are a grow­ing threat that must be addressed. 

(Courier Post, October 21, 2007). See Costs and Deterrence.