America Has A Police Shortage

Congratulations Democrats, mainstream media, and sports figures – but I repeat myself – you successfully orchestrated enough hatred that we have the fewest police officers since 1995.

There are now fewer police officers per person in the United States than at any point in the last 25 years, recently released federal data show, after over a decade of decline.

For those of you new to this blog, I have some bad – or good, depending upon your outlook – news for you: these numbers are going to plummet even further.

There were roughly 214 police officers per 100,000 Americans in 2019, according to the latest figures from the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll, which tracks employment across state and local governments. That represents a 1.5 percent decline from 2018 and a 9 percent drop from 2007, when police numbers last peaked.

To give you an idea of how far left the Democrats have gone, Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill added 100,000 police officers for many big cities. What are the chances of seeing that today?

Since that year, the number of sworn officers has declined precipitously, thanks in part to the Great Recession’s effects on police budgets and in part to growing hostility to law enforcement in the years since mass protests in Ferguson, Mo. Recent events, including a wave of retirements and the cancellations of recruitment classes amid public outcry and COVID-driven budget crunches, suggest that the trend will persist through 2020.

Cause and effect. Yes the Bush-Obama Great Recession did plenty of damage, but the hostility toward police – particularly during King Putt’s administration – had many of us questioning if the job was even worth it anymore. Ironically, the Obama era was a picnic compared to what we’re dealing with now, and people like me who have enough time in to retire, are deciding to pull up stakes and get the hell out.

The public fixation on police has, in fact, come at a time of general belt-tightening, driven by the coronavirus. Census Bureau data show that police account for roughly 7 percent of all payroll spending, while national data suggest they consistently account for between 4 and 5 percent of all state and local spending.

Big cities like Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, and Portland are already planning alternatives to police, and if Biden becomes president, that pattern will continue in cities across the country. Things will get out off control sooner rather than later, and police departments will either not have enough personnel to handle the situation, or the officers won’t care enough to risk their lives for politicians who are trying to eliminate them.

My honest suggestion? Buy guns, buy ammo.