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Police investigate the scene of a shooting in Evanston, Ill., March 12, 2021.
Photo:
Jose M. Osorio/Associated Press
One of the big undercovered stories of the year is the flight of current and potential officers from police forces across the country. A case study is what’s happening in Evanston, Ill., a Chicago suburb of some 78,000 that announced this month it will triage police responses to crime.
Evanston was one of many cities that voted to cut the police operating budget after the murder of
George Floyd
—by 5.36% in 2021. “Just because we haven’t had a George Floyd or a Breonna Taylor doesn’t mean what we have is working,” explained Evanston Alderman Cicely Fleming in 2020, according to the Daily Northwestern.
The city restored police funding in 2022, but it was too late to do the same for officer morale. The Evanston Police Department is now 26 officers short of its authorized force of 154. The detective bureau now has 12 officers, down from some 22 in 2019. “The defund movement definitely had a negative effect on our morale and our ability to retain our employees,” says Ryan Glew, the police public information officer.
The result is less policing. The department recently said it is reassigning five members of its community policing unit to patrol duty for at least two months. The detective bureau will focus on violent crimes. Officers will still respond to 911 calls, but “it’s the follow-up where we are triaging what we can and cannot” do, Mr. Glew says.
Among other limitations, police will no longer investigate misdemeanor or retail theft, as well as misdemeanor criminal damage to property unless there’s an identifiable suspect. It will also limit investigations into some incidents involving stolen vehicles and trespassing and burglaries at homes, garages, businesses and cars.
This trend is nationwide, despite cities offering bonuses and raising compensation. Why do the dangerous work of policing if you’re going to be vilified or put in the dock in a dispute with a suspect? The citizens of Evanston can thank the politicians they elected when their homes are robbed and nobody responds.
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