Wow, that last chart shows that MPD’s arrest per officer was consistently between .7-.8, then was cut in half in March 2020. This seems reasonable given the pandemic began then.
But then it essentially stayed the in the 3 years since then. WTF! How can this be tolerated, given the dramatic increase in crime over that time? It should have at least gone back to previous levels. This is outrageous.
Yes, this is one of the big under-discussed trends in DC (though this mirrors what we've seen in other cities).
Some officers say that they are told by police leadership not to make arrests and to minimize any chance of a "viral" moment with a suspect; especially after 2020s protests. Relatedly others will point out that they don't want to lose their jobs for making an arrest (sometimes this is tied in with Police Reform legislation or MPD's internal disciplinary culture). Here's an example: https://twitter.com/dccrimefacts/status/1701939412647526584
On the more skeptical side you have MPD themselves continuing to try and "get officers out of their cars" so there's definitely some officers that are driving that negative stereotype. It's also the case that many MPD officers are deployed to low-crime areas or admin roles where they just don't make many arrests. That has always been true but shifting resources into closing cases and making arrests is one way MPD could change things.
I tend to think that there can be a lot of factors here driving this trend with different officers. The longer that this is the new normal (and there are hundreds of junior MPD officers who've only worked under the post-COVID culture) the harder it will be to change. A lot of people are very eager to blame ALL of this trend on their political enemies but I see good evidence for a number of causes which requires a more comprehensive approach from MPD if they want to turn it around.
Wow, that last chart shows that MPD’s arrest per officer was consistently between .7-.8, then was cut in half in March 2020. This seems reasonable given the pandemic began then.
But then it essentially stayed the in the 3 years since then. WTF! How can this be tolerated, given the dramatic increase in crime over that time? It should have at least gone back to previous levels. This is outrageous.
Yes, this is one of the big under-discussed trends in DC (though this mirrors what we've seen in other cities).
Some officers say that they are told by police leadership not to make arrests and to minimize any chance of a "viral" moment with a suspect; especially after 2020s protests. Relatedly others will point out that they don't want to lose their jobs for making an arrest (sometimes this is tied in with Police Reform legislation or MPD's internal disciplinary culture). Here's an example: https://twitter.com/dccrimefacts/status/1701939412647526584
On the more skeptical side you have MPD themselves continuing to try and "get officers out of their cars" so there's definitely some officers that are driving that negative stereotype. It's also the case that many MPD officers are deployed to low-crime areas or admin roles where they just don't make many arrests. That has always been true but shifting resources into closing cases and making arrests is one way MPD could change things.
I tend to think that there can be a lot of factors here driving this trend with different officers. The longer that this is the new normal (and there are hundreds of junior MPD officers who've only worked under the post-COVID culture) the harder it will be to change. A lot of people are very eager to blame ALL of this trend on their political enemies but I see good evidence for a number of causes which requires a more comprehensive approach from MPD if they want to turn it around.