The Hayward Police Department recently released data indicating that many crimes, especially property crimes, have decreased over the last year. Mayor Mark Salinas celebrated the news and how the city managed to reduce crime despite a budget deficit. At the same time, the police department has 20% of their sworn officers unavailable and 27 sworn officer vacancies.
We’ve had fewer police officers and crime has decreased, so why are we investing more in policing? Fewer officers seems to be yielding fewer crimes. And with police departments frequently taking up the largest portion of a city’s General Fund, continuing to pay for vacant positions doesn’t seem to make sense.
The Hayward Police Chief attributes the decrease to investments in technology—he’s looking to start a new drone program that will see hundreds of flights per month. More surveillance will make us more safe, is the general argument of many police departments. But there’s an important difference between reacting to crime and preventing it.
Policing, surveillance and incarceration are all reactive, meaning they only happen after a crime has already occurred. Police show up to a scene after the crime is committed. Surveillance footage is reviewed after a crime has happened. When someone is caught and put in jail, the damage has already been done.
It’s important to react to an emergency, but we’re spending the majority of our money—sometimes up to half of a city’s General Fund—on reaction as opposed to prevention. That would be like only spending on firefighters without developing fire codes, smoke alarms, sprinkler systems and defensible space. There has been a huge investment in preventing homes from catching fire in the first place.
So as we enter budget season for cities across the Bay Area, we should be asking ourselves: What is my city doing to prevent bad things from happening? Despite movie tropes, most people don’t do crimes just for the thrill. People steal because they have no money. People are unhoused because they have nowhere to live. People get into fights because they never learned other ways to handle conflict.
These issues are solvable. Even with shrinking budgets, cities spend money on the things they value. Does your city value homelessness prevention, or economic opportunity or mental health? Or does it value policing, incarceration and surveillance? Now is the right time to ask.
