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Crime is up, right?
Wrong — it’s way down. But you’d never know that from what you hear and read.
“This is directly attributable to social media and the way we cover crime,” said John DeCarlo, a former Branford police chief who became an associate professor at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York and, is now one at the University of New Haven.
DeCarlo (pictured) made the observation during the most recent episode of WNHH radio’s “Legal Eagle” program. He also discussed the disturbing trend of suicide among cops and perception vs. reality in the age of social media. He also discussed the President’s 21st Century Task Force on Policing Report and Tasers.
DeCarlo noted that, contrary to public opinion, crime rates are plummeting across the nation.
He said he will often walk into a classroom and ask his students, “Is crime going up or down in the United States?”
Invariably, he said, students will say crime is “skyrocketing, it’s going up incredibly high.”
“This is directly attributable to social media and the way we cover crime,” he said.
“The fact of the matter is crime in the United States has plummeted since 1994 when we look at violent crime and property crime,” he said. ” It has gone down 45 percent nationally. And in New York City, crime has come down in the area of about 80 percent.” And, he added, tourism in New York City is flourishing.
Also on this episode of the Legal Eagle, New York Times columnist Linda Greenhouse (pictured) discussed a possible upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case about Texas’s efforts to shut down abortion clinics.
To listen to the program, click on the audio file above or find the program in iTunes or any podcast app under “WNHH Community Radio.”
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