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“On police and crime prevention.
I am not just a former Senior Patrol agent. I graduated with honors from Auburn University with a bachelor of science in criminal law with an emphasis on policing. So, I understand what policing can and cannot do. Politicians often talk about crime and reducing or preventing crime as part of what police do. This is incorrect. Anyone who’s studied the organization and structure of policing knows this. Police are inherently a reactive system. A crime is being committed or has been committed, and they respond.
Policing is rarely proactive. There are cases where cops may have Intel that a crime is expected to happen and they can stop it before it happens, but those are less common. Police are generally a reactive system. If you want a proactive police force, then you have to give up most of your rights for security. You must allow them to monitor people’s movement, communications and everyday activities. This was something most Americans at one time, even in my lifetime, agreed upon. We preferred to have more freedom than being constantly monitored.
We required cops meet certain standards before listening to our calls or breaking down our doors. This is why we had Miranda rights and rules about warrants. Freedom from police unreasonable searches and seizures is enshrined in the Constitution after all.
And though this freedom has not always been applied equally to all Americans, it did exist in concept and did offer Americans a bit of a check over police abuse. Essentially, after 9/11, politicians and police have seized on this unreasonable and unattainable level of safety.
They must monitor when and where we leave and enter the country, what we did, who we talked to, our emails, our texts, our social media. We must pass through checkpoint after checkpoint if we live within 100 miles of any land or sea border, which 2/3 of us do.
We must prove our citizenship, prove we are who we say we are, where we are coming from and what we are doing. In many border towns like Uvalde, TX, almost everyone knows a cops. They are everywhere. School districts, ports, local, state, federal. Yet, mass murders like xxxx still happen. And we look to all these cops and ask why. We look to our politicians and ask why. And they look back at us and say they need more money, more weapons and more cops. But here’s the thing, we could all be cops, and we cannot stop these mass shootings. Why?
Because policing is inherently reactive. To be proactive about crime, we must look to what causes people to commit crimes and how crimes are defined. We can be proactive about poverty, hunger, lack of opportunities, mental healthcare, healthcare, responsible gun laws, etc.
We can be proactive about social work and ensuring people do not fall through the cracks. That is what being proactive about crime means; it is preventing the circumstances they often cause one to commit a crime. Police have none of these skills. So, the next time a politician or cop says the answer to crime and mass shootings is more cops, weapons and money, tell them you want to address the causes of crime in your community. More guns, cops and money does not prevent crime. It does not make us safer. Uvalde proved that.”
Jenn Budd
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
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