Land of the Free: American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012

[Lucille]

Incarceration nation.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2013/09/18/how-do-they-have-time-to-eat-the-donuts/


The FBI has just released its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data for 2012, which complies arrest data for the whole of the USA. While the numbers have not changed much from the year before, the absolute numbers are stunning and I doubt most Americans are aware of how elevated and skewed they actually are.

The most stunning figure is that law enforcement made an estimated 12.2 million arrests in 2012. That’s an arrest almost every two seconds of every single day. That’s straight up horrifying. Of these arrests, only 521,196 were for violent crimes.

This is where the war on drugs really proves itself as a complete and total ridiculous failure and waste of money and resources, not to mention the fact that it destroys the lives of individuals and communities for no good reason.

Let’s get into some details on the drug war. The total number of drug arrests in 2012 was 1.56 million, and an an absolutely absurd 82% of those arrests were for possession alone, as opposed to sales/manufacturing. It gets even crazier. Of the total drug related arrests, a shocking 42% were for mere marijuana possession, a substance that my adopted home state of Colorado has just legalized along with Washington. So an American is arrested for marijuana possession every 48 seconds in this country. This is a complete and total disgrace and needs to change immediately. It’s also a large reason why the United States has 5% of the World’s Population, yet 25% of its Prisoners.

[tod evans]

"Just-Us"!

USA, USA!

[kathy88]

That is HORRIFYING. We talk about this a lot, but I had NO IDEA the numbers were that ridiculous.

[Philhelm]

I wonder what their kill rate is.

[heavenlyboy34]

That is HORRIFYING. We talk about this a lot, but I had NO IDEA the numbers were that ridiculous.
AF posted similar stats a few months ago...I had the same reaction. :eek: :(

[tod evans]

I wonder what their kill rate is.

Try and ascertain those figures.....

They're more closely guarded than NSA documents..

[aGameOfThrones]

The most stunning figure is that law enforcement made an estimated 12.2 million arrests in 2012. That’s an arrest almost every two seconds of every single day. That’s straight up horrifying. Of these arrests, only 521,196 were for violent crimes.

This is why we need police, stop complaining.

[Henry Rogue]

"United States has 5% of the World’s Population, yet 25% of its Prisoners." I found that exceptionalism I'm always hearing about.

[SeanTX]

IIRC, here in Texas there are only like three "crimes" you can't be arrested for, only ticketed -- one is having an open-container of alcohol in a car, another is speeding, can't remember the other one.

If a cop sees you jaywalking and wants to kidnap you and take you to jail, you're getting kidnapped. Same thing with not wearing a seatbelt, etc. It's all at their "discretion."

[RickyJ]

The most stunning figure is that law enforcement made an estimated 12.2 million arrests in 2012. That’s an arrest almost every two seconds of every single day. That’s straight up horrifying. Of these arrests, only 521,196 were for violent crimes

While I believe they are arresting too many I find it really hard to believe they actually arrested 12.2 million people in 2012. That is 33,425 people a day!

[kcchiefs6465]

While I believe they are arresting too many I find it really hard to believe they actually arrested 12.2 million people in 2012. That is 33,425 people a day!


Overview
◾Nationwide, law enforcement made an estimated 12,196,959 arrests in 2012. Of these arrests, 521,196 were for violent crimes, and 1,646,212 were for property crimes. (Note: the UCR Program does not collect data on citations for traffic violations.)
◾The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,552,432 arrests), driving under the influence (estimated at 1,282,957), and larceny-theft (estimated at 1,282,352). (See Table 29.)
◾The estimated arrest rate for the United States in 2012 was 3,888.2 arrests per 100,000 inhabitants. The arrest rate for violent crime (including murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) was 166.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the arrest rate for property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) was 528.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. (See Table 30.)
◾Two-year arrest trends show violent crime arrests declined 1.8 percent in 2012 when compared with 2011 arrests, but property crime arrests increased 0.3 percent when compared with the 2011 arrests.
◾Arrests of juveniles for all offenses decreased 10.4 percent in 2012 when compared with the 2011 number; arrests of adults declined 0.9 percent. (See Table 36.)
◾Nearly 74 percent (73.8) of the persons arrested in the nation during 2012 were males. They accounted for 80.1 percent of persons arrested for violent crime and 62.6 percent of persons arrested for property crime. (See Table 42.)
◾In 2012, 69.3 percent of all persons arrested were white, 28.1 percent were black, and the remaining 2.6 percent were of other races. (See Table 43.)


hxxp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/persons-arrested/persons-arrested

Law and order.

[kcchiefs6465]

A number that will give me an aneurysm is that of those arrested for driving under the influence. We are speaking of over a billion dollar a year industry justified by some 10,000 deaths of which many would have happened anyways, of which some are drunk bicyclists being hit, and of which many would not be the fault of the "drunk driver."

Goddamn. I don't think words could properly convey how utterly fucking absurd that is. And to the cheers of many, including here.

And the checkpoints.

Forced blood withdraws.

Ripe for marijuana legislation with applause from NIDA's sheep or should I say James Munch's? For the children they'll arrest their parents and people are by and large too goddamn indoctrinated to see the issue with it.

A number that high, bound to get higher with the inclusion of absurd marijuana per se laws up to the advocating of and lobbying for .05 BAC limits... you speak of lives impeded for nothing, ruined on whim and majority misconception...

Disgusting.

[RickyJ]

Since there are approx. 1.1 million law enforcement officers in the USA, that equals 11 arrests per officer for the year! This is insane! How does the media keep this hidden, nearly 5% of the adult population of the USA were arrested last year.

[fr33]

IIRC, here in Texas there are only like three "crimes" you can't be arrested for, only ticketed -- one is having an open-container of alcohol in a car, another is speeding, can't remember the other one.

If a cop sees you jaywalking and wants to kidnap you and take you to jail, you're getting kidnapped. Same thing with not wearing a seatbelt, etc. It's all at their "discretion."

But with an open container violation the troopers can't wait to pull out their breathalyzer tests in the hopes of making an arrest.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Umm, it's late, but I just did a quick back of the envelope....

1 person every 2 seconds... hmmm....

That equals 78,8 Million people a year. There are 300+ million people in this country. So, 1 in 4 have been arrested in the past year. Do you believe that? Just talking to your relatives, friends and neighbors - 1 in 4?????

-t

[kcchiefs6465]

Umm, it's late, but I just did a quick back of the envelope....

1 person every 2 seconds... hmmm....

That equals 78,8 Million people a year. There are 300+ million people in this country. So, 1 in 4 have been arrested in the past year. Do you believe that? Just talking to your relatives, friends and neighbors - 1 in 4?????

-t
From my drunken math, which I have been wrong on before so take it with a grain of salt...

One per every two seconds, is 30 per minute, 1800 per hour, 43,200 per day, 15,768,000 per year. The .2 added on would bring the number down to where they stated.

Many people are arrested more than once yearly, as well. (which is why you may not know many who were arrested) Once you've been arrested once and the police know your name, you are harassed and generally badgered into more arrests. The telling number is the total number of arrests versus actual crimes. The number of actual crimes, property crimes [which could be perhaps handled civilly] and violent crimes account for 17.7 percent of total arrests.

At the least, 83% of the police forces need to get real goddamn jobs.

ETA: Upon review of the updated Uniform Crime Report (I don't believe 2012 was fully published when this thread was, though perhaps it was) and the fact that I cannot find the table I used previously to come up with the 83% figure of crimes being non-crimes, I will have to retract that statement (for now). It came from a table that if weren't buried on a website run by incompetents, would be quite simple to locate.

[Philhelm]

"United States has 5% of the World’s Population, yet 25% of its Prisoners." I found that exceptionalism I'm always hearing about.

That's just because we're effective at finding the bad guys. /s

[Dr.3D]

That's just because we're effective at finding the bad guys. /s
The ones with the blue uniforms?

You don't have to find them, those thugs will find you.

[kcchiefs6465]

Bump.

[DamianTV]

"United States has 5% of the World’s Population, yet 25% of its Prisoners." I found that exceptionalism I'm always hearing about.

Blah, you beat me to this stat. +Rep

---


Umm, it's late, but I just did a quick back of the envelope....

1 person every 2 seconds... hmmm....

That equals 78,8 Million people a year. There are 300+ million people in this country. So, 1 in 4 have been arrested in the past year. Do you believe that? Just talking to your relatives, friends and neighbors - 1 in 4?????

-t

I read this stat somewhere else, and believe it is roughly accurate. For african american males, the rate is around 50%.

[Weston White]

I wonder what their kill rate is.

It averages between 300-400 every year: http://masscopblock.org/how-many-people-have-been-killed-by-the-police/

However, it seems there is not really any accountability for their “accidental deaths”, negligent killings of innocent individuals, “collateral damage”, etc.


Law enforcement reported 653 justifiable homicides in 2011. Of those, law enforcement officers justifiably killed 393 felons, and private citizens justifiably killed 260 people during the commission of a crime. (See Expanded Homicide Data Tables 14 and 15.)

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded/expanded-homicide-data

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Umm, it's late, but I just did a quick back of the envelope....

1 person every 2 seconds... hmmm....

That equals 78,8 Million people a year. There are 300+ million people in this country. So, 1 in 4 have been arrested in the past year. Do you believe that? Just talking to your relatives, friends and neighbors - 1 in 4?????

-t

there's no way it's 1 in 4, it's probably the same people being arrested like 5 times
though I wonder if the figure is even higher. Is someone considered arrested if the police take you into custody, even if they release you a few minutes later, or is it considered being arrested if you're processed at the police station?

[Anti Federalist]

there's no way it's 1 in 4, it's probably the same people being arrested like 5 times
though I wonder if the figure is even higher. Is someone considered arrested if the police take you into custody, even if they release you a few minutes later, or is it considered being arrested if you're processed at the police station?

I believe the latter only counts for an arrest.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

I believe the latter only counts for an arrest.

Then that means the number of times police harass people is much higher :eek:and then taking into account "Routine" things like traffic stops, being harassed by an officer is part of American life. Hell, I've been harassed a few times just for WALKING on the sidewalk. I guess it's suspicious to take a walk at 7pm.

*forgot to mention I've actually almost been shot by a cop walking on a sidewalk. He drew his weapon on me because he thought the silver cellphone on my belt was a gun.

[kcchiefs6465]

there's no way it's 1 in 4, it's probably the same people being arrested like 5 times
though I wonder if the figure is even higher. Is someone considered arrested if the police take you into custody, even if they release you a few minutes later, or is it considered being arrested if you're processed at the police station?
His math is off.

~12.5 million arrests in 2012. One every 2.2 seconds.