The New York Times, among others, wants us to beleive that America's cops are quitting their cushy, safe, six-figure jobs because morale is low. But labor data shows otherwise, with only 1% leaving their jobs in the last year, far lower than almost every other profession.
According to federal data, those worries are unfounded. Last year, as the overall U.S. economy shed 6% of workers, local police departments lost just under 1% of employees after a decade of steady expansion, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's about 4,000 people out of nearly half a million employees in municipal police departments and sheriff's offices nationwide. State and federal law enforcement departments actually saw a slight increase in the number of employees.
The paranoid culture of the "Thin Blue Line" lends itself to deception. This is a problem in itself, for obvious reasons, but it's vastly exacerbated by the journalistic habit of assuming that police are reliable sources whose press releases don't need attribution and who are individually trustworthy enough to grant anonymity and even perhaps ride along with now and again to see what happens of a night.
The Biden Administration recently announced that cities can use part of the $350 billion American Rescue Plan relief money to hire more officers to combat gun violence. Cities — big and small — are jumping on that offer, with claims that their police departments are running out of officers.
The general outcome of George Floyd's murder and the subsequent protests was police departments getting more officers, expanded budgets and tighter control of municipal operations. Like the Sandy Hook Massacre and gun control, it wasn't the catalyst for change but the unmasking of a racket, whose beneficiaries now know they never needed to compromise or negotiate in the first place and may now proceed without restraint.
