Legal Commentary

Behind the scenes both the Obama Administration and Police Unions must have winced over last weekend as Gates-gate (as Thomas Frank among others dubs it) built, knowing that Tuesday would be "police day" in the national recovery program, with Vice President Biden and AG Holder headlining the roll-out (AP Coverage) of 1 Billion in "stimulus" funding for cities to hire or not-lay off police officers.  It got a fair amount of attention from Bay Area media yesterday afternoon highlighting 50 new police for Oakland and San Francisco each (along with smaller numbers for Richmond and a few other cities).  Why two cheers?  Bay Area cities, especially Oakland, are under staffed given their relatively low densities and spread out geographies.  Any hope of NYC like police led reductions in crime would require very substantial increases in the size of the force (as well as better utlization than has been the record).  Compared to prisons where all but the most ideologically commited to mass imprisonment would agree that we are maxed out on useful expansion, more effective policing looks to have lots of potential gain left at least in the Bay Area.  Compared to heavy fixed capital prison costs, police spending is potentially very flexible, and with imaginative leadership can been deployed to address a wide variety of community needs.  But it would have been even better if the money had gone to counties with the mandate that they spend it to improve public safety by hiring needed personnell or services, while lettting counties decide whether more police officers are as crucial as more juvenile probation officers, more drug treatment openings, or more mental health workers, etc.