OKLAHOMA'S CRIME RATE NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED!

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.