Weekly Opinion Editorial
780 & 781 NEED
TO BE
ROLLED BACK!
by Steve Fair
Oklahoma has a higher crime rate than the
national average in 2018. In recently
FBI data, the Sooner state had higher rates of crime in murder, rape,
aggravated assault and property crime.
The only category where Oklahoma was lower than the national average was
armed robbery. Crime was up +1.9% over last year in Oklahoma and
the violent crime rate was 466 incidents per 100,000 people. Nationally, violent crime declined -3.7%. According to Christopher Hill of the
University of Oklahoma Sociology department the higher crime is a regional issue
with states with higher poverty rates having higher crime rates.
Five metropolitan areas in Oklahoma were
tracked in the report- Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, Enid, and eastern Oklahoma/Fort
Smith, AK. Tulsa had the highest murder rate;
Lawton the highest rates of rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and burglary. Enid had the lowest crime rates among the
four MSAs. Three observations:
First,
unfortunately crime follows poverty.
That doesn’t mean that poor people automatically turn to crime. Most poor people don’t commit crime just
because they don’t have enough money, but some do. Drug use and mental illness, which is higher
among lower income earners, are contributors to the higher crime rates as well. The study also found that crime victims in
Oklahoma are also at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Poor people tend to prey on poor people. Oklahoma ranks in the bottom third of states
in per capita income. We remain a poor
state.
Second,
the report should generate concern.
In 2016, Oklahoma voters approved SQ 780 and SQ 781 that reclassified
simple drug possession and some property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Proponents
were trying to address Oklahoma’s non-violent incarceration rates. Decriminalizing or reclassifying was their
solution. The measures went into effect
on July 1, 2017. 780 and 781 has tied
the hands of law enforcement and prosecutors and resulted in the opposite
effect- higher crime. Oh, the peril of
unintended consequences.
Third, the solution to reducing
crime is multi-faceted. Getting
people good jobs would help, but recruiting business to a state and asking
establishing business to expand in a state with high crime rates is a
challenge. Addressing mental illness and
drug use by the legislature and the private sector is long overdue. Rolling
back the unintended consequences of 780 and 781 would be a place to start, The impact of 780 and 781 on Oklahoma’s crime
rate has had the exact opposite effect it was aimed to do. Instead of reducing crime, the declassifying
of certain crimes has resulted in little deterrent for criminals. Felony charges were down -28% across the
state in the first six months after implementation of 780 and 781. While that did result in less people in prison,
the unintended consequences are more criminals on the street.
Violent crime in the U.S. has fallen steadily since the early 1990s and
according to criminologists it is due to higher incarceration rates and
improvements in the economy. Oklahoma
has moved the opposite direction. There is little doubt the motives of those
pushing 780 and 781 were pure, but the results have been polluted. ‘Do the
crime, do the time,’ was an effective deterrent. Remove it and crime increases.
