Saturate streets with cops

As the economy of Washington state, Spokane in particular, becomes worse, so too does our crime rate. On May 17 this year, Spokane was revealed to have the worst crime rate in all of Washington, even over the likes of Tacoma (which was second), with a crime rate of 78.5 (which means 1 in 78 and a half would be involved in crime).

Spokane is second in the state in violent crimes, but leads in property crime. Spokane and Tacoma are relatively the same size in terms of population, yet Tacoma employs 100 more police officers.

To remedy the issue of Spokane’s crime rate, or at least stop the bleeding, the city could hire 100 more police officers. This could potentially lower our crime rate and alleviate the embarrassment of being the most crime-filled city in the state.

This solution is not flawless, however. Flooding our streets with police officers may have a deterrent effect, lowering the amount of crime, but who’s to say these police officers won’t waste their time and resources by focusing on nonviolent and non-property crimes?

I feel the possible deterrent effect caused by hiring more police officers will be worth saturating our streets with police officers.

Gabriel D. Langevin

Spokane