More Police Does Not Mean Less Crime

According to a interactive crime map, crime in the city of Hamilton was on the rise with 380 incidents in the month of December.

The map clearly shows that most of the criminal activity was in the downtown core. Which is interesting considering that this area of the city has the largest police presence and most of the cities CCTV camera’s.

The Hamilton police Action team, made up of officers on foot, bikes, horseback, and in cars patrol the area heavily. There are many times that even taking a ten minute walk through downtown you will see upwards of eight to ten officers in that short amount of time.

The Hamilton police service Action strategy has been recognized internationally for “lowering crime and restoring civility to downtown streets”.

Once you look at this map, and go through not only decembers numbers, but numbers for the year of 2014. You can clearly see that the large majority of criminal activity is in the downtown area.

This raises the question. Does increased police presence equal less crime? According to the information in this mapping system, that answer is a clear no.

Having more police in a “at risk” area of the city does not decrease the amount of crime. More community services like addiction programs, etc. does.