‘Defund the Police’ campaign is to blame for nationwide crime spree, retired police chief warns

The Defund the Police campaign is to blame for crime levels spiking, putting people off becoming cops and leaving forces burned out, retired police chiefs have warned.

The movement, which led to violent clashes with officers last year, brought about the dangerous ‘ripple effects’ across the sector, the former top officers said.

It has caused a dramatic rise in waiting time for victims of vicious crimes and caused moral to plummet to the lowest it has been in decades, they added.

It comes as crime-ridden cities such as New York City and Portland in Oregon have seen staffing levels plunge in the wake of the campaign.

It has created a clear path for violent thugs to run riot across the cities and left victims without justice.

Retired police chief Jeff Rasche said when officers are spread thin, there are longer response times, and when they having to work overtime, there is less time for much-needed training

The movement, which led to violent clashes with officers last year, brought about the dangerous ‘ripple effects’ across the sector, the former top officers said 

Retired police chief Jeff Rasche told Fox News Digital that when officers are spread thin, there will be longer response times, and when officers are having to work overtime, there is less time for much-needed training.

‘There’s a ripple effect that right now is really dangerous,’ he said.

Another retired police chief, Jeff Halstead, said morale is the lowest he’s ever seen in his 30 years on the force – and said it’s because officers feel their profession has been demonized, and they are concerned about being indicted criminally.

‘I talk to law enforcement leaders on a daily basis. And in today’s world, their No. 1 problem is staffing,’ Halstead, a retired Fort Worth police chief said. 

‘And what you hear is the same drum being beaten: How are we going get ourselves through this? And what steps are we going to take to get our staffing back?’

Halstead pointed out that the national goal for highest-level priority call is to be at the scene in five minutes. But he doesn’t believe that to be the case today. 

Halstead later explained that some officers are not being as aggressive as they used to be because of their of being indicted for using force. Pictured are cops at a protest after George Floyd died at the hands of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin 

People carry signs during a ‘Defund the Police’ march from King County Youth Jail to City Hall in Seattle, Washington on August 5, 2020

‘The national goal for your highest-level priority call and policing was to respond and be on location within five minutes. That was a national goal. It’s been the national goal for decades.

‘And the majority of major city police departments were accomplishing that goal within three and a half to about four minutes and 45 seconds,’ Halstead said. ‘Today, I don’t know of any of them that are aggressively meeting that national standard.’

Halstead later explained that some officers are not being as aggressive as they used to be because of their of being indicted for using force.

‘Because of specific optics of the use of force incident … they’re now being indicted. So, many police officers, especially in your high-risk, high-crime suppression units, they are not getting nearly as aggressive as they used to be,’ Halstead said. ‘And that is one of the primary drivers of a massive increase in violent crime.’

In New York City, there was a massive cop exodus from the NYPD this year, according to the New York Post, with 2,465 police officers filing to leave the department — 42 percent more than the 1,731 who exited at the same time last year.

In Portland, Oregon, more than 230 police officers have left through retirements or resignations since 2020.

In Indiana, where Rasche worked as a police chief, the Noblesville Police Department operates with around 100 officers, and is receiving fewer and fewer applications, local media reports. 

A participant holds a Defund NYPD sign at the protest in New York City in 2020

United States Park Police pushes back protestors near the White House on June 1, 2020 as demonstrations against George Floyd’s death continue

‘With public safety and law enforcement, you can’t just turn the lights off and go home,’ Rasche told Fox News Digital. ‘So, what happens is you have to be creative and find different ways to provide the services you need. And yes, things [are] very delayed during this particular period, especially.’

But added that officers still need time to recharge and for training, but don’t have time for either.  

‘Your officers cannot take the time to be doing the training they need to be doing and have the time off,’ Rasche said. ‘They need to recharge to come back so that they are 100 percent when they put that badge back on their chest and come back to work.’

‘It’s glaring today in these communities where they’re trying to do things that have never been done before that they are obviously not working,’ Rasche said.

‘And I think that you’re starting to see the public step up and say, ‘Look, we’re not going to take this anymore. We’re not … going to live in a crime-ridden community. We are going to support the police. We want the police funded, and we are going to be there for police to support them because we need them.”

How safe is your city? Robberies soar by 13% and aggravated assaults by 2.6% in big U.S. cities so far this year: Concern over violent crime is set to drive voter turnout in midterms

Major U.S. cities have seen an alarming spike in robberies and assaults this year and murder rates are holding high, police chiefs warn — as concern over violent crime is set to drive voter turnout in the upcoming midterm elections. 

The Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) of senior cops from America’s biggest forces has warned in its mid-year report of ‘shocking numbers’ of violent crimes in urban areas compared to the same period last year.

The shocking data come as law and order remain top issues for voters in November’s midterm elections, and soft-on-crime policies and calls to defund police could hurt Democrats in some crime-plagued cities.

‘Compared to 2019 midyear figures, MCCA member cities have experienced a 50 percent increase in homicides and a roughly 36 percent increase in aggravated assaults,’ the group said in a statement.

‘These shocking numbers demonstrate how the sustained increase in violent crime has disproportionately impacted major urban areas.’

The survey found that homicides and rapes were slightly down in major U.S. cities compared to the same time last year — though they remain elevated following a roughly 30 percent spike in murders between 2019 and 2020.

Still, not all cities saw a drop in murders. Atlanta saw a roughly 20 percent rise and New Orleans a 40 percent rise in homicides, while Washington D.C., Baltimore, Dallas, Phoenix, and Denver also saw increases. 

Scenes like this 70-year-old woman being beaten and kicked in the head by multiple attackers in broad daylight in San Francisco are becoming more common in crime-ridden cities 

Overall, violent crime rates grew by 4.4 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2021, mostly due to sharp rises in the rates for robberies (13 percent) and aggravated assaults (2.6 percent).

New York City recorded a 39 percent rise in robberies and a 21 percent rise in aggravated assaults, while Los Angeles saw those figures jump by 22 percent and 21 percent respectively. San Francisco and Baltimore also saw steep rises.

It is unclear what is driving the surge, but Covid-19 created huge social upheaval and derailed government and community support systems. Gun sales also spiked during the pandemic.

Police forces are overstretched. Crime rates are rising even as cops worn out by the pandemic and disillusioned by calls to cut funding after George Floyd’s murder are quitting or retiring faster than they can be replaced.

Police chiefs are scrambling to recruit in a tight labor market while rethinking what services they can provide and what role cops should play in their communities. Many have shifted experienced officers to patrol duties to keep pace with 911 calls.

Pictured: Ezekiel Kelly, 19, caught on camera flashing an eerie grin (left in the back of a cop car, and right in a mugshot) after allegedly shooting four people dead and injuring three others in Memphis. He led police on an hours-long manhunt after an alert was raised, putting parts of the city into lockdown

The MCCA, which brings together 70 police forces, said in August it was studying trends on guns, the court system and other issues to try and ‘decrease the number of tragedies that have become far too common’.  

The group’s data confirm what residents and visitors to big cities already know. In recent days, a tourist was raped in a New York City subway station and a burglar raided the home of a Los Angeles mayoral candidate.

Women business owners in Chicago, meanwhile, say they are ditching the crime-ridden downtown area and heading to the suburbs after a wave of burglaries and armed robberies on neighborhood stores.

Soft-on-crime district attorneys have come under fire. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland panned the decision to release Ezekiel Kelly early from prison, only for the 22-year-old to go on a killing rampage in the city last week.

Violent crime — along with gun control, inflation and the economy — are prominent in voters’ minds ahead of the midterms, which will determine control of the Democratic-held House and Senate for the rest of President Joe Biden’s first term.

About three-quarters of registered voters said the economy was very important to them, while about six-in-ten voters cited gun policy, violent crime, health care, voting policies and education, a Pew Research Center poll found last month.