By The FirstThe FBI released its annual Uniform Crime Report – homicides rose nearly 30% nationwide in 2020; the largest single-year increase in almost 60 years. 2021 isn’t looking much better, with murders up 10% in major cities.
“I know people don’t want to hear this, and I empathize with that,” Anna Harvey, a public safety expert at New York University, told Vox. “[But] as far as the research evidence goes, for short-term responses to increases in homicides, the evidence is strongest for the police-based solutions.”
“A 2020 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded, ‘Each additional police officer abates approximately 0.1 homicides. In per capita terms, effects are twice as large for Black versus white victims,’” Vox reports.
Major cities that have diverted funds away from police departments include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Minneapolis.