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unidentified
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C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | |
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| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| Joining us to talk about the federal takeover of DC police and policing across the country is Jillian Snyder. | ||
| She's senior fellow at the R Street Institute. | ||
| Jillian, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you for having me. | |
| Can you just tell us about your focus at R Street, what you work on there, and your background in law enforcement? | ||
|
unidentified
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Sure. | |
| So R Street, we have a lot of portfolios, but I am currently a resident senior fellow on the criminal justice and civil liberties team. | ||
| So there we focus on all facets of the criminal justice system, specifically looking at policing, pre-trial, what happens when someone goes through the system and what we can do to fix post-conviction relief. | ||
| I've been there about 40 years, and I'm proud to say that my policing career at the NYPD was what inspired me to go into working at a public policy think tank. | ||
| Having that practical knowledge and that on-the-ground understanding of how the system works and operates allows me to contribute to meaningful changes. | ||
| So this week, as you know, President Trump announced the federal takeover of DC police and the deployment of National Guard in the city. | ||
| He says that crime is out of control and this is despite, as you know, FBI data showing that violent crime is going down in the city. | ||
| But do you think these actions were warranted? | ||
|
unidentified
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Looking at it from a police perspective, DC Metro Police are about 700 police officers short currently. | |
| That's a huge number. | ||
| When you're operating in a city like the district and you are supposed to have roughly 3,800 cops and you have about 3,100, that's a huge chunk of your patrol capacities being negatively impacted. | ||
| So understanding why the administration did it from a cop's perspective, I get it completely. | ||
| The resources are needed. | ||
| I think personally that what needs to happen is the federal agents that are there, the National Guard that's there. | ||
| The administration needs to be working very closely with the police chief, the mayor, the boots on the ground officers that are working for MPD, because ultimately this will end. | ||
| When it happens, we don't know. | ||
| But in the meantime, when all the federal resources depart, it's still going to be MPD that's there dealing day in and day out with the citizens of the district. | ||
| When you say that the DC police are about 700 people short, how is that number calculated? | ||
| Is it a number of cops per capita in cities, or how do you come to understanding how many cops are required for a given city? | ||
|
unidentified
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It varies across the cities, obviously. | |
| It looks at crime data. | ||
| It looks at per capita. | ||
| I know NYPD, where I worked, at one point we had over 42,000 police officers, and that was at the time considered optimal. | ||
| Now they're operating about 33,000 and obviously that's suboptimal, but a lot of variables will go into determining what is the appropriate staffing level. | ||
| I don't know how DC does it specifically, but one would be looking at tourists influxes, looking at amount of businesses within the area, looking amount of population density, and then as well as taking in crime statistics, of course. | ||
| And so, first of all, why is there that big of a shortage? | ||
| And what do you do about it? | ||
| How do you recruit and train more police officers? | ||
|
unidentified
|
DC, unfortunately, is not the only agency that's suffering. | |
| We're seeing this across the board. | ||
| I recently co-authored a paper with my colleague on the recruitment and retention crisis, looking at agencies across the nation and seeing that approximately 72% of all law enforcement agencies are reporting issues with recruiting and retaining cops. | ||
| So you're seeing in major areas like New York, like LA, like Chicago, like DC, you are not at that optimal level of staffing, whatever and how it's determined. | ||
| The last few years, obviously, with the criticisms against police and the scrutiny that they've faced, it's made the job less appealing. | ||
| But it's important because we've only been talking about this since 2020 and 2021. | ||
| We actually started seeing officers leaving the force before the pandemic. | ||
| After 9-11, we had a surge of people wanting to join law enforcement, myself included. | ||
| And that whole group of people are now eligible for retirement. | ||
| Many of the pension structures are 20 or 25 years and then you retire. | ||
| So all of those people that came on after 9-11 are now eligible to leave. | ||
| They're not finding the younger generation wanting this job. | ||
| I mean, looking at it now, I retired about five years ago and my husband just retired. | ||
| And I loved being a police officer, but it's so challenging. | ||
| It's not easy to raise a family. | ||
| It's not easy to have a routine life. | ||
| You don't work bankers hours of nine to five. | ||
| You work holidays. | ||
| You work weekends. | ||
| And then on top of all of that, you are dealing with people in most cases on the worst day of their life. | ||
| So you need to understand that not everyone's going to love you. | ||
| Not everyone's going to appreciate you. | ||
| And the younger generation out there, they don't really want to be dealing with negativity all the time. | ||
| And that's basically what policing is. | ||
| If you'd like to join our conversation, if you have a question about policing, crime rates across the country, or specifically the federal takeover of DC police, you can give us a call. | ||
| Our lines are regional. | ||
| So it's 202-748-8000 if you're in the Eastern or Central time zones. | ||
| It's 202-748-8001 for Mountain North Pacific time zones. | ||
| And DC residents, if you'd like to call us, you can do that on 202-748-8002. | ||
| Jillian, I want to play you a portion of comments from White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt from Tuesday, highlighting the actions that the newly deployed law enforcement officers took Monday night in DC and then get your take on it. | ||
| On another matter, yesterday, President Trump took bold action to finally restore law and order right here in our nation's capital. | ||
| The president declared a crime emergency in the District of Columbia, federalized the DC Police Department, and mobilized the DC National Guard to end violent crime in our nation's capital. | ||
| As part of the president's massive law enforcement surge, last night, approximately 850 officers and agents were surged across the city. | ||
| They made a total of 23 arrests, including multiple other contacts. | ||
| Last night, these arrests consisted of homicide, firearms offenses, possession with intent to distribute narcotics, fare evasion, lewd acts, stalking, possession of a high-capacity magazine, fleeing to elude in a vehicle, no permits, driving under the influence, reckless driving, and a bench warrant. | ||
| A total of six illegal handguns were seized off of District of Columbia streets as part of last night's effort. | ||
| This is only the beginning. | ||
| Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the district who breaks the law, undermines public safety, and endangers law-abiding Americans. | ||
| President Trump will not be deterred by soft-on-crime Democrats and media activists who refuse to acknowledge this rampant violence on our streets. | ||
| He is going to make our nation's capital the most beautiful and safe city on Earth, just as he promised on the campaign trail. | ||
| Jillian, are you there? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, I am. | |
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| Okay, go ahead. | ||
| Your reaction to that. | ||
|
unidentified
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I know that the numbers have actually increased since that announcement with more arrests being made. | |
| I did appreciate the fact that they went through the list showing that they're not just targeting low-level disorderly crimes, that they are purposely focusing on felonies, getting illegal handguns off the street, looking at where maybe drug dispensaries or drug distributing centers are. | ||
| But the most important thing is the they want to make sure that DC residents feel safe. | ||
| And I think that's like where everyone's missing this conversation. | ||
| We know that crime stats have shown decreases, and we get that. | ||
| And social science researchers, cops, everyone who understands crime is going down, but that doesn't mean D.C. residents feel safe. | ||
| And I think that the main purpose of this surge, as it's called, is to flood these hotspots, flood the zones that are seeing the increases in crime, the increases in violence, and making a bigger impact. | ||
| And again, because the DC Metro Police Department is operating with thinner resources, having this supportive backup with federal agents is going to allow them to at least do targeted hotspot searching. | ||
| And let's go to callers now. | ||
| Let's start with Wayne in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. | ||
| Good morning, Wayne. | ||
|
unidentified
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All right. | |
| How y'all doing today? | ||
| Good. | ||
| I'm glad that I'm not a Donald Trump fan, but I'm glad he's doing this because in all the inner cities where I lived at, and I'm 70 years old, crime was always out of control and it's out of control now. | ||
|
unidentified
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Now, most people inner city know who's selling drugs. | |
| It's their family members, they cousins, but they're not going to squeal on them. | ||
| So I say put the cops in what Donald Trump's doing is good to me. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| Any comment, Jillian? | ||
|
unidentified
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No, that's the feeling of a lot of Americans. | |
| If you live or have lived in a major city and experienced crime, I grew up in New York City in the early 80s, and it was, you know, it was scary back then. | ||
| Obviously, it's not like that today. | ||
| But when you've been, you know, exposed to something like that, you know law enforcement is your go-to for when you don't feel safe. | ||
| So again, I value that caller's opinion because people are not feeling safe in their communities. | ||
| Let's go to a resident in Washington, D.C. Ashley, you're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, how y'all doing? | |
| I just wanted to comment. | ||
| I've lived in D.C. all my life, and I've definitely lived through the crack epidemic and error. | ||
| And so crime to me is, I guess, on a different scale. | ||
| I will say that, you know, what Donald Trump is doing would be great if it had had, you know, if it was from a good place. | ||
| I think that the policing that he's doing is really to incite fear among the black and brown community within D.C. You say you want to stop crime. | ||
| You say you want to handle these issues, but at the same time, you're cutting funding. | ||
| You still haven't had Congress release the billion dollars that they're holding on to, which really would go into a lot of programming for the youth and for different facets. | ||
| So I think when you look at that, and then you also look at other states, right, like Missouri or Louisiana or Memphis, they have a way higher crime rates in D.C., but you're not focusing on any of those states. | ||
| You're only focusing on the blue states where we did not vote for you in high numbers. | ||
| And that is the issue that I have with this. | ||
| Nobody wants crime. | ||
| Everybody wants a safe city, right? | ||
| But we want to make sure that the intentions that you're doing it with are in the best interest of the residents of D.C. | ||
| And right now, it just doesn't feel that way. | ||
| Jillian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I really appreciate that caller's mention of programming. | |
| And that's something that this administration does need to consider. | ||
| And it's kind of like a hit or miss because at the federal level, their hands are tied on what they can do at the state level, of course. | ||
| But we need the states to primarily focus on making sure that community-based programs, social service programs, juvenile-related programs to address some of those issues. | ||
| States really need to work together to come up with ideas other than just locking people up. | ||
| But at the same time, when there are violent felonies occurring, when there are murders happening, when there are rapes occurring, we do need law enforcement to go out there in full force and keep the residents safe. | ||
| And Jillian, how much does this deployment cost? | ||
| Do we know the total cost on maybe a per-month basis? | ||
|
unidentified
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I wouldn't be able to say. | |
| I actually looked into it the other day and there were approximations for the LA when he sent the National Guard into LA. | ||
| But again, those figures were so inconsistent. | ||
| I saw $100 million, I saw $120 million, but no one has come up with this is the amount, at least to my knowledge. | ||
| It's very expensive. | ||
| There's no doubting that. | ||
| But what's happening in Metro PD, because they don't have enough comps, they're forced to make all these officers work overtime. | ||
| That's costing hundreds of millions of dollars as well. | ||
| So if you are now taking some of that burden temporarily off of MPD and instead using federal resources for the federal agents that are there patrolling, I mean, I wouldn't say it's a cost savings, but I'd say it's similar in nature that you're using less overtime for MPD, but more spending on federal agents. | ||
| Another Washington, D.C. resident, Terry, you're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I have three things that I would like to say. | ||
| Number one, I do live in Southeast. | ||
| I feel like I've been under a police state for years. | ||
| There's always a police car. | ||
| There's a big presence, cars on the corner, et cetera. | ||
| So for people who maybe have not experienced this, welcome to my world. | ||
| Number two, where are the people being taken? | ||
| Do they have their constitutional rights intact? | ||
| And the third thing is, in terms of the money, I'm wondering if this is an opportunity in Trump's mind to get his hands on the retirement monies, because I've heard in different states when they're grabbing, there's an ulterior motive there. | ||
| And so is this about the fully funded pensions of the citizens of Washington, D.C.? | ||
| Will the money be affected at all? | ||
| I'll take my answer off the air. | ||
| So Terry, before you go, when you said that you felt like you lived in a police state in Southeasteast with a lot of police presence, does that make you feel safer? | ||
|
unidentified
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It makes me feel safer. | |
| And I like the idea because the policemen are not beating people. | ||
| They are not bum rushing people. | ||
| They're not intent from what I've seen. | ||
| It's just the presence to me, it lets the people know that, well, there is, if you do something wrong, we're there. | ||
| But I'm a little dubious when it comes to what the others may do because these are young people and young people have energy and young people have undirected energy and young people have energy that is available for use, but they don't have jobs. | ||
| I mean, they're doing some things I do believe. | ||
| I walk right by them. | ||
| Nobody's bothering me. | ||
| And I'm not saying that that would not happen, you know, at different times of the day or night, but I have not been harmed by these same youths. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So I think that they're just doing youth things. | ||
| All right, let's get Jillian Snyder to respond. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So on her first point about having a lot of visible presence of officers, I mean, I wouldn't consider that a police state. | |
| That is a very standard tactic that most agencies will use because statistically, if you have uniformed presence, opportunistic crimes will not occur. | ||
| If you have an officer sitting in a patrol car or standing on a street corner in uniform, you are not going to see someone sell drugs right in front of them or steal someone's person, run down the street or commit a robbery because that presence is there, that capable guardian, if you will. | ||
| So most agencies, I know when I started with NYPD, for the first year, they literally stuck me on a street corner in East New York, in Brooklyn, just to be there because it was a very high crime area. | ||
| And the goal was that visible presence was a deterrent. | ||
| So that's on that point. | ||
| She also alluded to the juveniles. | ||
| I think that's who you were talking about with the high energy level. | ||
| What we do need, and this is not just DC specific, this is across the country, we do need more services and more programs that give youths other options than defaulting to crime. | ||
| When I worked in the South Bronx, which is where I spent most of my career, we did have the fortune of getting a community rec center built. | ||
| And previous to that, we had a high rate of burglaries and kids breaking into cars and breaking into Bodegas and stealing stuff. | ||
| Once they opened this rec center, which had a lot of sports programming and just things for them to do other than be idle on the street, we did see a decrease in those juvenile-related crimes. | ||
| Obviously, it didn't get rid of all of them, but it made a substantial difference. | ||
| So that's kind of where I'm going with that. | ||
| The third point I really can't speak to. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is Dustin in Idaho. | ||
| Good morning, Dustin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just want to say that I fully support Trump with what he's doing. | ||
| Everybody's going to be safe. | ||
| And that's all I got to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is Daniel in Springfield, Virginia. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| Thank you for having me on. | ||
| My main point was the trust between people and police. | ||
| I think after 2020, after George Floyd, the trust with the police has just gone way down. | ||
| And I think they've been working on that ever since and trying to get recruiting up and everything. | ||
| And I think that areas are lacking a lot of police. | ||
| And I think crime is on the rampet. | ||
| And I think that Trump is taking advantage of that and using All these people's fears of crime to take control of the National Guard and these cities. | ||
| And he said DC is just the beginning. | ||
| And all these, I just don't want it to get to the point of him having ultimate authority over the police and just be able to have that trust with people again. | ||
| Especially, I just want to say one more thing with the 2028. | ||
| I just have questions for Jillian to see how much control he would actually have over the police in DC because he already tried a coup in 2021 and he could try the same thing with this military takeover. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Jillian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You brought up two important things. | |
| So trust. | ||
| That is something huge. | ||
| Our street, we do a lot of work on police legitimacy and the institution and culture of policing and how community members feel about it. | ||
| So if you don't trust the institution of policing, you're less likely to, you know, call 911 when you see a crime, call 911 when you're the victim of a crime, or just respect the law entirely. | ||
| So I think it's really important to note that agencies since 2020 have been working really hard to do more things in collaboration with communities to try and rebuild that trust. | ||
| On the other thing we were discussing about the, I think Trump, I think the president is looking at this through the lens of public safety. | ||
| He ran on that platform. | ||
| That's something he's always been very vocal about. | ||
| And again, many callers today have expressed gratitude because they've said they don't feel safe and they think that this is a necessary thing. | ||
| Ultimately, I think that what will have to happen is it's not a takeover, in my opinion. | ||
| In the beginning, that's how it seemed. | ||
| The media did kind of spin it that way. | ||
| Myself, I was a little confused. | ||
| And now it seems like it is a collaborative effort. | ||
| You know, the police chiefs on board. | ||
| The mayor has slowly begun being more receptive to this, saying that they do appreciate the extra assistance. | ||
| She herself did mention that MPD is down significantly, about 700 officers. | ||
| So as long as this continues to be a partnership and not a takeover, I think that's promising. | ||
| So how does that actually work, Jillian? | ||
| You know, in addition to the National Guard, you've got agents from the FBI, the ATF, U.S. Marshals, there's other agencies. | ||
| How does the coordination work with all those different agencies and the Metropolitan Police? | ||
|
unidentified
|
They're still, I'm thinking from what I'm seeing on the news, they're still kind of working that out. | |
| Obviously, they're going to be a hierarchy is going to be established. | ||
| But from what I've talked to other MPD officers that I know, and I've talked to a couple of federal agents that I know just to see what it is boots on the ground right now, MPD does seem to still be the lead. | ||
| So as everyone knows, National Guard does not at this time have any powers of arrest. | ||
| So they are not out there grabbing up people and handcuffing them because they don't have the power to do so. | ||
| They're there to support the efforts of MPD and the federal agents. | ||
| Even the federal agents that are there, their powers of arrest differ from local policing. | ||
| So primarily, MPD is going to be the one to effectuate all of these arrests. | ||
| Doesn't mean that a federal agent, if they observe a crime, cannot detain a person, but they will be working with MPD to actually make that arrest because, again, there's jurisdictional concerns. | ||
| What crimes a federal agent can make an arrest for versus what a local cop can make an arrest for. | ||
| Here's Kevin in Washington, D.C. Hi, Kevin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| First, I think I was watching the press conference from the White House press secretary, and a lot of things she was saying were very misleading. | ||
| And I think we, I mean, everyone appreciates this, but we need to be honest and factual. | ||
| She had mentioned that there were some arrests for homicides and some of these violent crimes. | ||
| But what she didn't mention was that the U.S. Marshall Task Force serves the felony warrants for the Metropolitan Police Department. | ||
| Those warrants are taken out by MPD detectives and served by the Marshall Task Force, and they go out every day and serve these warrants. | ||
| So now they're incorporating those numbers, which were arrests that would have been made anyway, regardless of whether they were part of this show or not. | ||
| So I think it's a lot misleading to say that I don't want the public just to think that all of a sudden these federal agents are out here and they're doing MPD's job. | ||
| Those warrants are taken out by MPD and they're served anyway. | ||
| So those numbers are being taken from point A and placed into this surge. | ||
| So I think it's misleading to say just because of this surge that these arrests are being made. | ||
| They would have been made anyway. | ||
| We got that. | ||
| Kevin, Jillian, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Numbers themselves are misleading. | |
| Honestly, if you look at the crime statistics, FBI report came out. | ||
| Everyone was very excited, myself included. | ||
| I thought it was progress being made. | ||
| The numbers look decent, but that only accounts for the crimes reported to police. | ||
| So everyone, you know, celebrating that yay, crime went down. | ||
| Overall, violent crime, 4.5% in the entire country. | ||
| That's great news, but that's only about half of all crime that occurs is reported to police. | ||
| So statistically, our numbers are misleading. | ||
| We were looking specifically at DC and 26% crime dropped from last year, which was reported. | ||
| And now there's allegations that some of those numbers may have been manipulated by MPD staff members. | ||
| So always take numbers with a grain of salt. | ||
| That's what I say. | ||
| They're good for looking at longitudinal trends, but we shouldn't be basing public policy at all simply on the numbers. | ||
| Jillian, you said half of all crime is reported to police. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I just had another paper published about a month ago on case clearance rates and looking at violent crime versus property crime. | |
| And we've seen just the reporting is one of the biggest issues of why case clearance rates have declined so much. | ||
| But it is approximated, and again, take numbers with a grain of salt. | ||
| It is approximated that about half of all crime that occurs in reality is reported to police. | ||
| The other way that most researchers or social science teachers will look at crime is looking at the National Crime Victimization Survey. | ||
| So that's a BJS study that is supposed to capture the other crime numbers that are not reported put to police or called the dark figure of crime. | ||
| And you'll see that I believe we don't have the 2024 numbers yet, but 2023 numbers were showing higher. | ||
| So more crimes were not reported to police in 2023 than had been two and three years previously. | ||
| So that's showing that these numbers, these FBI reports that we're all relying on, well, helpful in identifying trends over courses of time. | ||
| They're not capturing all crime that occurs in reality. | ||
| It's Dr. Carla, Wayne City, Illinois. | ||
| You're on with Jillian Snyder of the R Street Institute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I'm from Illinois, and I was just wondering, there's a woman that talked about the blue states being targeted. | |
| And I'm kind of wondering now, Illinois is, I mean, I know we got Governor Prisker, and he says he's doing a good job. | ||
| He's lied through every bit of it because there's so much crime around here. | ||
| You can't turn on the news without seeing somebody being arrested for pedophilia, drugs, murder. | ||
| I mean, all kinds of crime. | ||
| There's all kinds of crime in Chicago. | ||
| Moved away from up north to get away from the cities because I was like an hour and a half from Chicago and the crime was seeping down closer to me. | ||
| So I moved further south. | ||
| But the crime in the blue states, a lot of it is because of sanctuary cities. | ||
| And I was wondering if you can determine how, you know, like who's got the highest crime rate in this country? | ||
| Is it Chicago? | ||
| Is it Washington, D.C.? | ||
| Is it California? | ||
| I mean, people don't understand that. | ||
| Crime went up when they decided to sanctuary these cities. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So you're letting. | |
| Jillian, the relationship between crime and illegal immigrants. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So statistically, it's not supported, actually. | |
| Most people who are here undocumented, they are not. | ||
| Again, I'm not speaking on all undocumented people because we obviously know of cases in high-profile cases in which undocumented people did commit heinous crime. | ||
| But overall, we do not see higher rates of crime being committed by undocumented people when compared to legal citizens. | ||
| So that is statistically what I know. | ||
| Again, we have to just take that with a grain of salt because as this woman's describing, she's perceiving, and that's what we all do. | ||
| So when you see disorder, when you see a lot of undocumented people during the pandemic, we had in New York City, we had that issue, homelessness overall, people that were unhoused and suffering from substance use issues. | ||
| So the city itself was just blanketed in people who had nowhere else to go. | ||
| And yes, if you were walking down the street, you did not feel safe. | ||
| That didn't necessarily mean that crime on that street was out of control. | ||
| You just see this disorder and you personally don't feel safe. | ||
| So I don't want to say that there's a relationship between sanctuary cities and crime, but obviously a lot of people feel that it is. | ||
| Michael Lewisburg, North Carolina, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Meeve, and good morning to your guests. | |
| There's so many issues here that I'm just trying to lock in on a couple real quickly. | ||
| I will say that President Trump is a master of, he knows his base. | ||
| He's a master of deflection, a master of distraction. | ||
| He knows with his base that talking about crime, okay, all these black people are committing all these violent crimes. | ||
| And you got the good guys in the white hats and the white guys from the National Guard, you know, coming in to protect all the solid, peaceful white citizens of D.C. That's what this is all about. | ||
| And the problem, the other problem is ever since Daryl Gates made it a policy to recruit officers from the deep south to come out to LA to be police officers, you've got these three percenters and these oath keepers and these police departments are actively recruiting these people. | ||
| And until you it's an automatically disqualifier from employment that you belong to one of these groups, you can't come into the department all tattered up with tattoos all up and down your arms. | ||
| Black folks and most people of color are never going to trust the police because you have stories every day of police abuse against members of this community, especially black folks. | ||
| I'm black and I used to be a law enforcement officer. | ||
| And I can tell you stories about events that occurred when I was a law enforcement officer. | ||
| So that really is your problem. | ||
| You got to quit recruiting these guys. | ||
| You can't let them come in there with tattoos all up and down their arms. | ||
| Okay, Michael, we got that point. | ||
| Let's get a response. | ||
| Go ahead, Jillian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you for your service and prior law enforcement experience. | |
| I appreciate it. | ||
| You mentioned the tattoos. | ||
| A lot of agencies now are actually getting rid of some of those standards. | ||
| There's been a lot of news this week. | ||
| I know it's probably gotten muted by some of the bigger news, but agencies across the country are reducing their hiring standards, including some of those tattoos or certain piercings or other things, because they're so desperate for officers. | ||
| So, all of these agencies that are just struggling to get by, they're coming up with new and intuitive ways, whether it be allowing someone that had a prior arrest for simple marijuana possession, which 10 years ago that was absolutely not. | ||
| You can't be a police officer, but now it's more commonly accepted. | ||
| So, as long as there's enough time between the arrest and when you're applying, they'll make a consideration. | ||
| They're also looking to reduce physical fitness requirements in some agencies, saying that it's too difficult to pass the physical fitness. | ||
| They're reducing educational standards. | ||
| NYPD just did that. | ||
| They reduced it from 60 to I think 34 college credits now to be an officer. | ||
| So, again, this is all to say the desperation of agencies to fill these seats and get people out on patrol is causing a dramatic reduction in hiring standards across the country. | ||
| Reggie Randallstown, Maryland, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, good morning, good morning. | |
| I just want to make a quick comment for what the guest just was saying about the standards. | ||
| I'm a retired Navy veteran, and I know that when you start dipping or start amending standards, basically, you start going to the low trough. | ||
| I mean, you're asking for trouble. | ||
| I don't care how desperate you are to recruit. | ||
| You know, that's the reason why society has to go out and start recruiting, you know, with these kids while they're in junior high and high school, teaching them standards and morality. | ||
| And then you can have a better trough to choose from. | ||
| But when you start, you know, making excuses, you know, because you're so desperate that you're going to go out and get Barney Fife to go out and police your community, no, that's the wrong answer. | ||
| There's no excuse for that. | ||
| And secondly, I want to say about this Donald Trump thing, this surge, all that is, first of all, like Carla said before me, there's a deflection because it's where the Epstein files at. | ||
| Reggie, I think she addressed the recruitment. | ||
| So let's get in, Valerie from Richmond, Virginia. | ||
| Valerie, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, thank you for taking my call. | |
| It's been very interesting listening to everybody and their opinions. | ||
| My first question would be: why would you federalize DC with the black mayor? | ||
| And you did the same thing in Los Angeles. | ||
| Now, my understanding, he can only do it for 30 days. | ||
| So after the 30 days, then what? | ||
| Your guest is saying there's a shortage of police officers all over the country. | ||
| So I would think with the National Guard, and that's a lot of money. | ||
| I'm retired Army. | ||
| So I know how much it costs to put a soldier, a reserve soldier, on duty for 30 days, depending on what their rank is. | ||
| That money could have been better served by pumping that into DC to have programs to find affordable housing or to open up centers for homeless people. | ||
| So the monies that are spent on this so-called exercise of authority is a big smoking pile of you know what because we all know what it's all about. | ||
| But I'd like to hear her comment. | ||
| Okay, and Jillian, last comment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You mentioned the 30 days. | |
| I know that President Trump has discussed working with Congress to possibly get some legislation to expand that, but no, as of where it stands now, after 30 days, this can no longer take place. | ||
| What you were saying about the money is absolutely true. | ||
| It's costly to do something like this, but just so we know it's not unheard of for states or districts in this case to need to use National Guard services because in New York, Governor Hogel had to do it a few months ago. | ||
| She actually had to deploy National Guard to the subway stations because we didn't have enough cops to do it. | ||
| We saw an increase in subway crime, so we needed the National Guard support. | ||
| All right, that's Jillian Snyder, Senior Fellow at R Street Institute. | ||
| You can find her work at rstreet.org. | ||
| Jillian, thanks so much for joining us today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
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