Via Mark Kleiman, William Stuntz makes the case for increased federal assistance to local governments to hire police officers. He’s making the case in The Weekly Standard so it’s filled with a fair amount of somewhat annoying conservative rhetoric and framing, down to the use of the term “police surge” but he’s still right.
Among other things, staying strictly within the realm of things that count as “tough on crime” but increasing the number of prison beds and increasing the number of cops on the streets are effective at reducing crime. At boosting incarceration is considerably less humane and more socially destructive. Both police and prisoners are necessary, but we’ve gone from having twice as many police officers as prison inmates to having twice as many inmates as police officers. It’s not a beneficial switch.
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