More arrests, better policing?

Re “Arrests across state plunge, fueling alarm,” April 2

The fine and touching article by Lopez is about a 78-year-old women who sleeps in her old, broken car at the senior center in Carlsbad, a city I once served as a member of the Senior Commission.

Her story of hard work at that age despite suffering great pain is a mark against a society without adequate support for its most vulnerable. She tries to live on Social Security while looking for employment and housing. Scandinavian nations and other advanced countries take far better care of their citizens than we do; they are models for better civil society with social justice.

It was a pleasure to read about Jack Risley of the Carlsbad Senior Center staff. He is well known for humane and effective service, a fine example of the quality of government employee often ignored in the media. Jack L. Nelson

Carlsbad

A focus on arrests, proactive policing and production is not the best way to measure effectiveness. In fact, an absence of crime, traffic problems and overall disorder best serves the public-police partnership.

Unfortunately, police culture has placed the felony arrest on a pedestal of reverence; it is the stuff of heroic police work and has served, aided by lazy supervision, as the measure of effective policing.

There are many avenues open for effective policing. Unfortunately, police and political culture rely most on the criminal justice system. It is time that we expand our horizons, redirect our financial resources and stop relying on something that does not work. Stephen Downing

Long Beach The writer is a retired Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief.

On the front page of Sunday’s Times, it is noted that the reasons for the drop in arrests statewide amid a rise in crime are “unclear.”

I would suggest that the answer is in another article in the same paper reporting on police shootings that go unrecorded by body cameras. The piece contains comments critical of police.

It is difficult to find headlines that speak positively of local law enforcement. I feel this constant criticism may make officers hesitant in the performance

of their duties.

Please give us more good news about our officers, as I think they generally do a great job. Jack Buss

Banning