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Vallejo defunded its police force. Killings by officers soared.


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2020 Jun 23, 10:37am   491 views  5 comments

by RWSGFY   ➕follow (4)   💰tip   ignore  

Twelve years ago, officials in Vallejo, Calif., reluctantly took a step that activists are now urging in cities across the country: They defunded their police department.

Unable to pay its bills after the 2008 financial crisis, Vallejo filed for bankruptcy and cut its police force nearly in half - to fewer than 80 officers, from a pre-recession high of more than 150. At the time, the working-class city of 122,000 north of San Francisco struggled with high rates of violent crime and simmering mistrust of its police department. It didn't seem like things could get much worse.

And then they did. Far from ushering in a new era of harmony between police and the people they are sworn to protect, the budget cuts worsened tensions between the department and the community and were followed by a dramatic surge in officers' use of deadly force. Since 2009 the police have killed 20 people, an extraordinarily high number for such a small city. In 2012 alone, officers fatally shot six suspects. Nearly a third of the city's homicides that year were committed by law enforcement.

Vallejo's experience offers a glimpse of what a reduced police presence on America's streets could mean as defunding continues to gain traction. In the wake of national protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, city officials from New York to Los Angeles are talking seriously about far-reaching cuts to their police forces.

Those who support such an approach say that the current model of policing is irrevocably broken and that millions or billions of dollars should be moved from police budgets to social services.

But in Vallejo, where residents and public officials have seen firsthand the reality of a decimated police department, the defund mantra is facing a skeptical audience. Beyond the obvious consequences of fewer officers - such as fewer responses to burglaries, car thefts and other lower-priority offenses - this city has learned the hard way that a smaller police force is not necessarily a less deadly one.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/This-California-city-defunded-its-police-force-15359817.php

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1   Ceffer   2020 Jun 23, 10:46am  

My neighbor who was involved with Stockton reorganization was only concerned about preserving public service union benefits. Ongoing services were low on the list of to-do.

In these places, it is like smoke and mirrors, where they try to maintain the facade of services while raking off as much of the tax pile to the usual suspects.
2   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2020 Jun 23, 10:47am  

LEGALIZE CRIME, NOW!
3   RWSGFY   2020 Jun 23, 10:48am  

jazz_music says
Be afraid

Be very afraid


Facts don't matter!
4   RWSGFY   2020 Jun 23, 10:52am  

"A recent review of the Vallejo Police Department by the OIR Group, an independent consultancy hired by the city, found "significant and far-reaching" effects from the staffing reductions that linger to this day. At a basic level, the consultants found, Vallejo simply has too few police officers to do the work asked of them. Today, the approximately 100 sworn officers average out to 0.8 per 1,000 residents, about half the national average and less than a sixth of the number in Washington."

Still waaay more than the number in CHAZ/CHOP!
5   just_passing_through   2020 Jun 23, 9:08pm  

Dude, I missed out. My baby sis used to live there and she didn't fucking tell me.

Had a co-worker ... his best friend was a Vallejo cop during this time. Apparently that guy made a lot of dough but he got shot at a lot. Also heard stories (applied to a lot of the East bay) like another pal he had who woke up middle of the night and some gang banger dude had let himself in and was digging through his refrigerator. He just let him make a sammich and then he left. Off international blvd I think? I had a cousin (she now makes over 300K/yr and has been for a while) buy in San Leandro and similar thing. She moved back to Novato (N. of GG bridge) where she's from as a kid but while they were there the joke was about the needles at the gas station around the corner, bangers, homeless, toofless dude who gives BJs at the pump. Circa 2010.

I'd be shooting people for that damn sammich. But you must be very careful how you do that here. As per what I've been told by the guys at the gun store/range. Even in your own house. Very very careful.

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