(Originally published in American Thinker.)
If you defund the police, do you expect them to work for free?
In Louisiana, the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association estimates that sheriffs’ offices across the state are currently understaffed by approximately 1,800 deputies. This has created problems for agencies keeping the needed levels of officers on the street and increasing the response time for calls.
Governor Jeff Landry said, “Currently, our state is facing a shortage of officers, resulting in increased crime and less public safety.”
The problem has gotten so bad that Landry, who is a former local police officer and sheriff’s deputy, issued an executive declaring a state of emergency this month. The order also allows lifts limits on how many new employees Louisiana sheriffs can hire and on payroll increases for their departments. The hope is that by lifting the limits, the agencies will be able to fill their ranks in a relatively short amount of time.
Police officer resignations were up 47 percent in 2022, compared with 2019, the year before the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder, according to a survey of nearly 200 police agencies by the Police Executive Research Forum. Retirements are up over that period are up 19 percent.
While Landry’s executive order is certainly a step in the right direction, it won’t work because it is no longer about the money.
As police agencies across the country are discovering, there just aren’t enough people out there who want to be police officers any longer. They have been disrespected and vilified. They have been attacked and had their lives placed in danger. They have been told they aren’t needed or wanted. And when they do their jobs and arrest criminals, they have to watch liberal prosecutors refuse to prosecute the cases.
So is it any surprise that they are leaving the job?
It shouldn’t be. What would you do if you were treated similarly at your job?
This is what happens. While many cities are experiencing severe shortages of police officers, Louisiana is the first state to declare an emergency over the problem. Landry has called a crime-focused special legislative session that could overhaul the state’s current criminal justice system.
“Among the two dozen tough-on-crime-related items on Landry’s broad agenda are expanding methods to carry out death row executions, restricting parole eligibility, harsher penalties for carjackings, ‘immunity from liability’ for law enforcement based upon certain criteria and publicizing some juvenile court records,” The Mirror U.S. reported.
Although Landry is a Republican, many cities in the state, such as New Orleans, are Democrat-controlled and are already dealing with the perfect storm of rising crime and shrinking law enforcement agencies. Their relative indifference or ineffectiveness at dealing with the issue is now spilling outside of their borders.
Sadly, Louisiana can throw money at the shortage, but men and women who would usually join the police force see the way residents and politicians treat officers and decide that there are less dangerous jobs that draw less hatred that they would rather do.
This is what the Democrats wanted. When you defund the police, you don’t have police. You have unchecked crime and the problems it brings.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
