Recent history has been
hard on police-community relations. Public attention has been focused on concerns
about excessive use of force, but there’s another equally serious problem: the
failure of police departments to “close” (i.e. solve) crimes in many of the
same communities that complain about rough treatment at the hands of officers.

Statista has a good overview of the different clearance rates for different crimes in the United States. A little over 60 percent of murders in the US are solved, a not especially impressive figure when one contemplates four out of 10 murderers escaping justice and remaining at large. Ditto the 47 percent of aggravated assaults and almost 33 percent of rapes. And those are national figures. When one looks at high crime areas, the unsolved numbers tend to go up — a lot. A recent profile on this topic in The Economist provides both statistical evidence as well the voices of victim families that helps explain how falling closure rates contribute to fractured relationships between police forces and the communities they serve and protect.

Last year, largely-white St.
Louis County closed 87 percent of its murder cases. In heavily-minority City of
St. Louis, the clearance rate was 36 percent. When cases aren’t closed, the
families of victims often either know for certain or have a strong sense of who
the likely perpetrator is. And, importantly, the perpetrators know the families and friends know. If
police aren’t solving crimes and prosecutors punishing them, potential
informants put themselves and their families at risk by talking to police. This
dynamic shuts down the vital exchange of information between police forces and
the communities they patrol. One victim’s mother put it this way for The
Economist: “I live in this neighborhood. I work in this neighborhood. My kids
go to school here. We know the perpetrators; we just can’t say it. Nobody’s
offering us protection.” This leads to a code of silence or, even worse, cycles
of privatized justice known as street violence.  

What’s needed are practices that stop the downward spiral of violent crime and community fear. Last summer, I wrote about police reforms in Camden that rebuilt trust by rebuilding the police force under new management, use of force policies, and a renewed commitment to community policing. Not only did Camden’s homicide rates fall, but the clearance rates on violent crime increased as part of improved relationships between officers and citizens. As Ronald Reagan might say, there are no easy solutions to the problems of violent crime and policing, but there may be simple ones.

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