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Comment by sickofparadox | Hacker News Reader

What point is there to doing anything if the officers know that the DA won't press charges or that the system will just let them out in a few hours on no-cash bail? 1/3 of all (reported) shoplifting incidents in NYC happen because the justice system there cannot hold ~300 people that are responsible for that huge chunk of stealing. [1]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/nyregion/shoplifting-arre... (https://archive.is/VCKkk)

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As a counterpoint to your argument: in many places I've lived the police would refuse to do their job even for things such as property theft that was caught on camera. Or enforce basic road laws for things like speeding or driving without plates. This was especially annoying in Austin where the police would continually blame a lack of budget despite having an insanely bloated budget.

I've become more and more cynical as I've gotten older and convinced that the police are largely conditioned to never do their job and just collect a paycheck for free, because then they can leverage their refusal into even more pay. It's corruption and kickbacks all the way through, and it's been a consistent trend in multiple cities.

Again, why bother to arrest someone if the rest of the system is just going to let them out? In Austin, your leadership decided that it was fine for you to be robbed, because they pursued a policy of not prosecuting property theft. [1] In addition, the Austin city council cancelled three classes of cadets for the APD while cutting the number of approved officers. In one of the fastest growing cities in America, they decided to end the new officer pipeline, ensuring that your PD will have fewer officers to serve the growing population. [2]

[1] https://www.traviscountytx.gov/images/county_attorney/Docs/L...

[2]https://theaustinbulldog.org/did-austin-defund-the-police-he...

That's not at all what either of the links you've given me say. At this point I don't really see a need to engage with you further if you're going to supply links that you take far out of context.

From my first link: "Individuals experiencing homelessness are frequently arrested for minor crimes, like trespassing and shoplifting, that directly result from their housing and economic status. Like most governmental entities, we have limited resources and have a fiduciary duty to taxpayers to use precious resources in the most efficient way possible. With that in mind, we will concentrate our resources on violent crime and threats to public safety." The explicit effect on policy communicated by this section is, 'My office will not pursue property crime'.

From the second link: "The council appropriated funds for 1,809 sworn officer positions, compared to 1,959 sworn officer positions approved in last year’s budget—a reduction of 7.7 percent. The number of civilian positions (617) and cadet positions (117) remains largely unchanged from last year. The council also zeroed out funding for three cadet classes." This is right at the beginning of the link and follows exactly with what I said in my comment about them reducing headcount and cancelling cadet classes. You cannot have a cadet class with zero funding.

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