Urban cities are slowly returning to a time that was not that pretty. Yes, that is happening in NYC when people shoot up heroin in the streets. Where crime rose and scared people to flee their cities. Crime escalates when people can’t get food on the table, fill their addictions, or don’t have a roof over their heads. Those are macro problems, but the cops on phones are not.
What other job are you able to walk the streets and text, scroll and be on your phone all day long? Why do police officers need phones on the street? Why can’t their carry something that only connects them to their partner, the precinct, emergency rooms, fire stations, and any person or organization that might be needed in a crime or backup needed situation?
Who is reflecting on new ways to run the local police? There has to be a better way. I will scream if I see one more picture or story about the police standing around on their phones. Instead of taking photos of entitled people leaving their cars running while they run an errand (yes, you can take pictures of cars and trucks doing this for three minutes and receive a cash award in NYC), why don’t we do it with the police? Each photo of a cop on their phone scrolling and texting in the subway, on the streets, or wherever they are for more than a few minutes should get written up on their record.
It doesn’t take much to examine the streets and understand why that rhetoric is amplified. Cops on phones, while crime is rising, is just not a well-coordinated effort to change what is happening on our streets. Remember demolish the police? Enough already.