Camden, NJ cleaned house and dissolved its municipal police department when corruption and the lack of accountability became too much of an issue to deal with. Policing services are now performed by the county.

[–] Truaxe@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It seems disingenuous to separate number of arrests from "actual frequency" when the data suggests that the ballot initiative actually made things worse. The lead researcher behind the study shows their bias with their conjecture:

"The study also looked at arrest rates for curfew violations, loitering, vagrancy, trespassing and disorderly conduct. Davis said arrests for those categories increased in Oregon after Measure 110 took effect but said there isn’t evidence to suggest the frequency of those offenses actually increased.

“I personally think it’s probably more … that the cops are like, ‘Well, I can’t arrest you for the drugs, but I told you to move along and you didn’t. So I’m giving you a ticket for that,’” Davis said."

They can say that despite the data, they think actual frequency of those offenses haven't increased, but equally valid to their gut feeling is the anecdotal evidence that homeless activity has greatly increased and most car lots now have 12ft. tall electric fences.

[–] ZephyrXero@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Umm, the article is about overdoes rates, not arrests. Clearly you have a bias. And you cherry picked your quote. You left off the prior, more important line

That study found that Ballot Measure 110 reduced the number of arrests for drug possession but did not lead to an increase in violent crime arrests. The study also looked at arrest rates for curfew violations...

[+] jordanlund@lemmy.world -13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Please note, the statistic is addressing drug overdose DEATHS.

What about drug overdoses IN GENERAL?

If you increase the availability of drugs, but also things like Narcan, overdoses will go up but deaths can remain static.

[–] Encode1307@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dude I get it, you don't like measure 110. Read the article and you'll get an answer to your question.

[+] jordanlund@lemmy.world -6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Nothing in the article addresses stats on overdoses in general just overdose deaths.

We need to see year by year numbers on ODs, not just deaths.

There's this great book called "How to Lie With Statistics" and one of the examples they cite is "ZOMG! Murders are up 14% in the past 5 years!" But the piece they leave out is population growth.

If murders are up 14% but the population grew 20%, then the rate of murders is down, not up.

This is why I say, saying the number of overdose deaths, on it's own, is not a meaningful statistic.

Are people dying at the same rate as before 110 or have we just gotten better at treating what would have previously been fatal ODs?

There's no way to know that without the other half of the equation.

https://www.kptv.com/2023/09/28/portland-firefighters-responding-high-amounts-od-calls/

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Portland Fire & Rescue Station 1 in downtown Portland is one of the busiest in the city.

“We expect to be somewhere around or north of 12,000 calls this calendar year,” Firefighter Ryan Lougeay said. “This will potentially be the highest number of calls in the history of this station.”

and also:

"“Right now we repeat drug overdoses every day,” said Lougeay. “Down here we can see 10 to 30 fentanyl-related overdoses in a 24 hour period.”"

[–] Encode1307@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The article clearly says that there's no good way to track overdoses. That data isn't captured anywhere.

Thank God we have you to hold the NYU School Of Medicine accountable and tell them which statistics are meaningful.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Why do you think availability of narcan went up?