That Should Help Patch Things Up With The Community

The police find that there’s less chance of getting in trouble if you simply stay away:

In the weeks since Sean Bell was fatally shot by police outside a Queens topless bar, arrests have dropped by about 40% in the area, the latest police statistics show.

Some experts said the drop reflected police officers’ reluctance to face another confrontation in a neighborhood charged with racial tension after the shooting, and some pointed to similar drops following other controversial shootings.

Police arrested 323 people in the Jamaica area of Queens during the November 19–December 17 period, Compstat reports show. In 2005, police arrested 535 people during the same period. The 39.6% drop comes alongside a 5.3% increase in complaints of crime in the neighborhood for the period. The 103rd Precinct is responsible for the neighborhood, but the drop in arrests include those made by other bureaus, including Organized Crime and Narcotics.

Meanwhile, arrests across the city have risen to 27,164 this year from 25,139 for the same period in 2005, an 8% increase.

. . .

The drop is in line with city arrest data after other police shootings, a professor of policing at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Eli Silverman, said.

“If an officer feels that the heat is on and the spotlight is on, they are going to opt for the side of caution,” he said. “After major incidents, you generally see a tapering off” of active enforcement.