One of the things about police work is that the stats are, in fact the stats. They are reflective of arrests made, successful prosecutions and stoppages. When there are no tickets, in the end, there is no reports of how much 'crime' actually occurred, outside of the reduction.

Bunny Colvin, a character from "The Wire" worried so much about his stats that in the end, he legalized drugs and moved them off of the corner to reduce the rates of other crimes. The NYPD, through their unions are trying a similar experience, and the end result is significant.

The Police Union issued this statement:

http://gotnews.com/...



IN ADDITION: Absolutely NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and or summonses is to be taken unless absolutely necessary and an individual MUST be placed under arrest.

The union goes on to talk about the blood of police officers on De Blasio's hand, but it may just be me thinking that arrests 'only when necessary' should always be the approach. I mean, if there isn't a necessary reason to arrest someone.. why would you, or is this some new policing I'm unaware of?

The department then goes on to declare that it is at war with the city:



The mayors hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words actions and policies and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a “wartime” police department. We will act accordingly.

And when you at war, you need a fucking enemy. And pretty soon, damn near everybody on every corner is your fucking enemy. And soon the neighborhood that you're supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory.

This reminds me of a speech given by Bunny in the Wire:Still, with a record drop of 66% in overall arrests hell, even parking tickets are down..

http://nypost.com/...

Even parking violations are way down, dropping by 92 percent, from 14,699 to 1,241.

The NYPD's "protest" and "declaration of war" by inaction may be bringing some smiles to those that juke the stats.

For the rest, this reaction seems appropriate.



Take that major crime reduction in stride, Mr. Mayor.