Crime Time

The age of "Kojak liberals"

Martin Morse Wooster from the October 1994 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

In the March Governing, Penelope Lemov reports on another useful reform that was recently adopted by the North Carolina legislature. In North Carolina, like many states, the cost of running and building prisons has soared, while irresponsible politicians ranted about imposing ever-stiffer sentences. So a bill was passed that requires any North Carolina legislator who introduces a bill lengthening a sentence for a particular crime to report how much the longer sentence will cost the state. "The idea of being able to stand up and be tough on crime without worrying about how to pay for it has got to stop," North Carolina Superior Court Judge Thomas W. Ross told Lemov.

Journalists can also do a better job informing the readers about what police actually do. Teachers are very articulate about the problems they face in their classrooms, and some social workers and sociologists have done a good job in describing the mind- numbing life of the welfare caseworker. But police officers do not do a good job in telling the public what they do, and the result is that far too many citizens, engorged by "reality" shows on the networks, believe that police spend their days kicking down doors and blasting away at Uzi-toting drug lords.

But, as George Kelling and Catherine Coles observe in the Summer Public Interest, many of the useful things police do to improve communities--asking tenants to turn down noisy stereos, suggesting that loiterers move on, detaining aggressive panhandlers--do more to help citizens feel safe and secure than SWAT teams or other flashy efforts. But such low- key, low-cost activities are hardly likely to win support from career politicians.

Long-term, local, incremental efforts will most likely do more to fight crime than any national effort. The proper response to any Washington-based solon's speech about crime is to take the cynicism one normally has for politicians--and double it.