The data cited by the article works against it. The US has a reasonable number of police per capita for a developed nation, falling between Canada and Australia which are culturally very similar (common law, english speaking, a few dense urban centers but also large rural areas, etc). The issue is that despite having an adequate number of police, they are not effective at suppressing violent crime.
This is hardly surprising if you dig a little deeper. There has been a long trend throughout the US of reduce spending on dedicated public services -> shift remaining responsibility for those services to local police -> increase police budget to handle additional workload -> budget issues -> reduce spending on dedicated public services. The problems all those services were dealing with fester, leading to lower quality of life and worsening socioeconomic situations for residents, which in turn increases both demand for these services and crime rates. At the same time while the cops are doing inadequate jobs dealing with problems they are neither equipped nor trained for, they are pulling resources away from the job they are actually supposed to be doing. These penny pinching policies have ironically fiscally ruined many communities across the nation. Unfortunately many have dug themselves so deep that the damage is likely irreversible, especially when you consider demographic trends that are depleting these communities of their young, their wealthy, and their skilled citizens. Those communities that can be saved will likely need a complex cocktail of creative measures and external assistance. Any simple proposal like "just hire more cops" is as laughable as "let them eat cake."
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The data cited by the article works against it. The US has a reasonable number of police per capita for a developed nation, falling between Canada and Australia which are culturally very similar (common law, english speaking, a few dense urban centers but also large rural areas, etc). The issue is that despite having an adequate number of police, they are not effective at suppressing violent crime.
This is hardly surprising if you dig a little deeper. There has been a long trend throughout the US of reduce spending on dedicated public services -> shift remaining responsibility for those services to local police -> increase police budget to handle additional workload -> budget issues -> reduce spending on dedicated public services. The problems all those services were dealing with fester, leading to lower quality of life and worsening socioeconomic situations for residents, which in turn increases both demand for these services and crime rates. At the same time while the cops are doing inadequate jobs dealing with problems they are neither equipped nor trained for, they are pulling resources away from the job they are actually supposed to be doing. These penny pinching policies have ironically fiscally ruined many communities across the nation. Unfortunately many have dug themselves so deep that the damage is likely irreversible, especially when you consider demographic trends that are depleting these communities of their young, their wealthy, and their skilled citizens. Those communities that can be saved will likely need a complex cocktail of creative measures and external assistance. Any simple proposal like "just hire more cops" is as laughable as "let them eat cake."