All around the US, I hear people say that crime is getting worse and that the police aren’t doing much to neither prevent crime nor arrest criminals.
Is there any place that actually has a good police force?
I don’t mean extremely wealthy suburbs like Irvine, California, or remote towns with very few people like Marfa, Texas.
I’m interested in places that should be more dangerous, but aren’t, due to policing.
Comments
This subreddit is for civil discussion; political threads are not exempt from this. As a reminder:
Do not report comments because they disagree with your point of view.
Do not insult other users. Personal attacks are not permitted.
Do not use hate speech. You will be banned, permanently.
Comments made with the intent to push an agenda, push misinformation, soapbox, sealion, or argue in bad faith are not acceptable. If you can’t discuss a topic in good faith and in a respectful manner, do not comment. Political disagreement does not constitute pushing an agenda.
If you see any comments that violate the rules, please report it and move on!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
NYC.
The thing is, crime has absolutely not gotten worse. In fact it has been decreasing for 30 years
Police don’t prevent crime. Social cohesion and adequate resources for all members of a community are directly correlated with lower crime rates. Social unrest, political polarization, and vast wealth inequality is directly correlated with higher crime rates.
Also, weirdly enough, average environmental temperatures correlated strongly with crime and violence. Warm eras are more violent among all humans.
Props to LA too. I remember in the 90s every movie was basically how LA was basically the Gaza strip.
How could police possibly prevent crime? They can’t be in every home, every store, every corner. Ita impossible.
“You hear”, in general cities are more progressive and wealthier with better financial prospects for their population. Half or more of the media and influencer world tends to be about control and power and one way they do that is saying how dangerous and dirty and crime ridden the cities are to scare people away. But statistics show in general violent crime is way down and continues to decline. Anecdotes and viral videos of shop lifting go viral because they are engaging and amplified but that doesn’t mean it it is constant problem. Poverty and the addiction problems that have swept through the country has been overblown for political agendas.
NYC. It’s so much safer than it was when I moved here in 93. Poeple that say it’s dangerous now are usually Fox News brainwashed boomers on Long Island. Which is crazy considering when they were young and coming into the city to try to get into Studio 54, the city’s murder rate was double what it is now.
Also I don’t know if it was all due to policing. The trend to flee to the suburbs started to reverse at the same time throughout the late 80s and 90s. Gentrification played a big role. For example The LES, the East Village and parts of Brooklyn were already gentrifying by the time Giuliani brought in the Broken Windows policing.
Really depends on what you define as crime.. To me that’s person – on – person shit…. Personal violence and personal property crimes. And in my experience, no city in the states handles this. Shoplifting? Sure. Spray paint? Definitely a thing. Rape? Good fucking luck. Got your car window smashed and documents and tools stolen? Ehhhh……. How spendy was the car?
You sort of blew your question with the assumption crime is bad, getting worse, and police have a role in that. You should have stuck with “what places would you expect to have more crime but don’t because their policing practices are more effective than in other places?”
Irvine isn’t “extremely wealthy”
Boston PD!
Police do not prevent crime, but courts do. A police officer cannot be everywhere at once. They arrest a repeat offender over and over again. If the court system does not punish that individual then they will continue to do so. A person steals scrap metal and makes a decent amount. The cops finds him and put him in jail. The court gives them community service. While on community service they start stealing scrap metal. And the circle continues forever.
You want effective policing? Outside high income areas with the associated low population density and high tax basis!? Sir, this is America. We’re not prepared to even have that discussion.
Crime is at record lows in Buffalo
Partly due to NY’s welfare state making people less desperate, community policing defusing violence among gangs and a relatively hands off approach by city police.
It’s a mistake to just look at the police force as being the cause of reducing crime. It can help, but a thriving economy along with social services, especially mental health and reducing drug addiction, are also contributing factors.
“Effective” policing tends to skirt or outright cross constitutional lines. Left unchecked, the police can absolutely prevent crime and make areas safer. But it involves things like stop and frisk, pulling over out of towners, racial profiling, civil forfeiture, harassing unwanted families until they move out of town or generally making people fear the police more than they do the courts. It comes down to the liberty vs safety tradeoff Ben Franklin recognized, and how much people in an individual community are willing to trade one for the other.
Outside of that, it’s really just demographics.
Almost any city. Large urban cities have problems for very complicated reasons. I’m not indifferent to inner city crime.
But that’s also factored into our crime stats. Once you get out if those areas you’re in one of the safest countries on earth.
get out of the rough parts of the city and America is actually very very safe.
This is like our food: America doesn’t get enough credit for how good it is here.
If you look at our crime rate we aren’t particularly worse than europe.
> All around the US, I hear people say that crime is getting worse
You need to start listening to different people.
Despite all the movies where gangsters shoot each other in the back of the head, Boston is the safest major city in America.
A part of that is from community policing efforts and public policy reform.
For example, Operation Hoodsie. About a decade ago, BPD spent nearly $90K on an ice cream truck – which drew a lot of controversy at the time. They bring the truck to low-income neighborhoods on hot summer days and hand out free ice cream to kids. This built a lot of goodwill.
A decade later, those kids are grown up and they’re far more likely to cooperate with emergency services or share tips with detectives working in their communities. A $90K investment ends up saving a lot of lives.
Boston is also a sanctuary city. Our local police handbook prohibits working federal government on immigration enforcement. That means immigrants with questionable status feel safer contacting emergency services for crimes, medical emergencies and sharing tips. Safer for them means safer for all.
We’re in Mid-April 2025 and had 5 homicides this year.
Five. All of which the victim knew the perpetrator. As a point of contrast, Chicago has had over 100.
You are far more likely to be hurt or killed driving home from work in an uppity middle-class suburb than you are walking home from the train in Boston at night.
Baltimore’s been doing well during our current mayor’s tenure.
Their TRAFFIC POLICING on the other hand is nonexistent.
Crime hasn’t gotten worse, it’s that media reports on it more, and people hear about more crime from social media like Facebook, Nextdoor, Ring camera neighborhood alerts, etc. So people are more aware of what crime does take place, but the overall numbers are less than in the past.
I would argue that policies is a better measure against crime. There are probably a lot of good police force out there but the thing is every decently sized towns and cities have their own force. Even next to each other you’ll find a difference in tactics and policies.
All of them. Crime is at all time lows and has been trending down for decades. America is fabulously safe.
Lol