(Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Is America seeing the impact of the Ferguson Effect? Crime has emerged as a critical issue over the past two years, and recent reports suggest a prime contributor to the increase in illegal activity is the plummeting rate of police arrests. To put it simply, law enforcement officers just aren’t arresting as many criminals as they have in the past. There could be several factors contributing to this troubling trend, but the real reason police aren’t making as many arrests is being overlooked by members of the chattering class.
Is the Ferguson Effect Accelerating?
Police arrests nationwide have taken a significant plunge over the past decade, but the trend accelerated after the controversy over the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Pittsburgh has seen a decrease of 60% in arrests over the past eight years. According to a city audit, the number of arrests dropped from 18,541 in 2013 to 7,405 in 2021. However, The Center Square noted that the decline “was most noticeable in 2020 and 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In Chicago, the number of arrests dropped considerably between 2020 and 2021 when law enforcement made arrests in only 12% of all crime. This is the lowest level in more than 20 years. Unfortunately, violent crime has continued to surge in the Windy City. In 2021, there were 797 homicides, which marks a 25-year record.
In fact, police activity overall has seen a decline. The Washington Examiner reported:
“And it’s not just the number of arrests in violent crimes that have decreased. It’s an extensive reduction in all police activity by the Chicago Police Department. Statistics showed drops in police citations, traffic stops, and investigative stops (pat-downs and searches by police officers of people on the street if police suspected them of potential criminal acts).
“Between 2019 and 2021, the number of investigative stops dwindled from 155,000 to 69,000, a greater than 50% drop. All of this led to an emboldened criminal class and a surge in crime. Initiatives to protect the criminals have doomed the innocent.”
San Antonio, TX, has experienced a similar trend. The Highland County Press noted that “arrests dropped from a peak of 188,212 in 2015 to 25,036 in 2021.” But what is noteworthy about this development is that even before the pandemic, arrests had dropped by 48% over the previous year. “Parking violations dropped from 78,612 in 2012 to 40,806 in 2021 and traffic violations dropped from 266,157 in 2012 to 66,381 in 2012,” according to the Highland County Press. “The reduction in those statistics also began before the pandemic.”
What’s the Deal With Arrests?
It does not take a Harvard degree to see what is at play when looking at the drop in arrests nationwide. It appears the Ferguson Effect is still having an impact and has even intensified in recent years. The Ferguson Effect refers to the impact of the controversy over the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, a black resident of Ferguson, MO. After the hard left fomented nationwide anti-police sentiment, that city saw a sharp decrease in law enforcement activity. Officers pulled back from proactive policing out of fear that they would be labeled as racists oppressing black Americans.
(Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
It seems likely that the Ferguson Effect is still having an influence on the decline in arrests. After the Floyd situation, progressives repeated their behavior from the Brown shooting, demonizing law enforcement and portraying them as tools of white supremacy. Leftists launched the Defund the Police movement and convinced, cajoled, and coerced major cities to slash their law enforcement budgets. The result was a record number of retirements and resignations among officers and skyrocketing crime rates.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told the Washington Examiner that officers have pulled back from policing due to the level of scrutiny. “The Ferguson Effect is a real thing. Police officers started to back away from enforcement,” he said. “You saw it across the nation. You wonder why you see less and less enforcement and more and more crime, it’s woke politicians and activists and the media have made it so. They wanted us to disengage.” He continued, explaining that the left has “made the environment so toxic that it is very difficult to enforce laws in the United States right now.”
This is not a surprise given that progressives will vilify the police even in situations in which they save lives. Black Lives Matter activists recently protested against Minneapolis police for shooting a suspect who had fired his gun into his neighbor’s apartment, almost killing her in front of her two daughters. The political games that progressives play when it comes to the police is not only out of touch with the rest of the American public but also dangerous to the average civilian. However, with Democrats backing away slightly from their anti-police rhetoric and crime being a major issue in the upcoming elections, there is a chance that police will once again be able to do their jobs without unfair narratives painting them as bigoted oppressors. The question is: How long will it take?
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