[post_break]

I worded my comment poorly. The seabrook PD is tiny and basically all the calls to walmart were causing other places to be policed less. The revenue brought in from the walmart isn't enough to offset the cost of hiring more officers.

[criddell]

What's a reasonable solution? If there's more crime than the Seabrook PD can handle, then hard decisions have to be made. It seems they either need to increase taxes to hire more police or start deciding what laws won't be enforced when police are not available.

[saint_fiasco]

But all the thieves are also concentrated in Walmart, leaving less theft to go around in the rest of the neighborhood. Shouldn't it balance out?

[ones_and_zeros]

There have been several reports from the justice department indicating that over policing and a judicial system that penalizes being poor are widespread and ultimately exacerbate the problem.

If you have any say when your community does have revenue, it might be worthwhile to support solutions that don't amount to more police making more criminals.

[greedo]

"police making more criminals"

That in a nutshell is one of the real problems with crime in the US. It's unpopular to expect people to behave in a civil manner. Instead we tolerate their uncivil behavior by blaming schools, parents, churches, and now police for making them criminals. Forget personal responsibility, that's for suckers.

[fixermark]

Did the crime rate go up in other places as a result of police resources being re-routed?

Did the crime rate in the town overall go up?