Yesterday, I was having a rather intense discussion with an owner’s representative about one of my projects when it was rudely interrupted by a drug bust. Four Arlington County, VA (maybe they were State Troopers) jumped out of a van, raid vests on, guns drawn and surrounded this beat to crap Honda Civic, while another cop in a Chevy Suburban cut the Honda off, and another leaped out in the middle of traffic, shotgun out, to keep anyone from driving up. For reasons I can’t fully explain, the Honda was parked in the middle of a cab stand, leading me to originally conclude that it simply did not pay to try and pick up a fare without a medallion.
Anyway, after they’ve secured this rather sad looking hippie, and pulled the bags of product out of his car, they spent time photographing the scene, calling for a radio car to haul him off to lock up, having the Honda towed away, I started to think about what this cost. I did some quick math (I’ll give it to you if you want it), and I figure they were using about $120K in equipment. Assuming they do 20 of these a year, that’s $6,000 a pop. That doesn’t even count the cost of prosecution (and defense if this guy was indigent), and incarceration if he’s convicted.
It could be the case that they got Tony Montana with this operation, but I’m going to guess not. Frankly, it looked to me like they could have lured him into the back a paddy wagon with a bag of Funyuns, but I certainly respect the need and desire of the police to go home safe at night.
My question is this: is this the best way to be spending our crime fighting dollars? Is it reasonable to ask what the return on investment for such operations? They took whatever he had, but does that reduce crime, and if so by what percentage? Is the fiscal cost/benefit of criminal justice something we should be examining during our current fiscal pickle?
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