ILLINOIS NEEDS MORE PRISONS, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Re. "Being a cop is getting more dangerous" (Dec. 28):

First, being a police officer can be dangerous, and they certainly do have
some judgmental latitude in the performance of their duties. But the basic
job is to ascertain criminal behavior/civic disobedience and to effect
arrests if necessary (with a call for backup if needed). The resolution of
any case is left to the courts and not the officer. They are not judge and
jury.

Second, for those two-thirds of assaults on police by convicts, the law can
work to take criminals off the street but only if it is enforced. Only 25
percent of convicts are in prison. The rest are on parole or probation
(DOJ/FBI statistics). The average career criminal commits more than 180
crimes a year (RAND Corp.). All of which means they are out there, and they
are going to butt heads with the police. More prisons and tougher
sentencing are in order.

Third, if the statistic is true that 90 percent of police fatalities occur
due to handgun use by criminals, then we need to get illegal guns off the
street. A big source of such weapons is street gangs. Banning all handguns,
including those used by responsible citizens for sport or self-defense, is
not the answer.

Fourth, bulletproof vests are fine, and I don't begrudge their use.
However, if you want them to be 100 percent effective, the officer has to
wear them all the time. This may not always be possible or ever desirable.
Also, to depend on a vest at the expense of basic training may give a false
sense of security.

Finally, most of us want a more safe society for everyone. We could
continue the paranoid approach and ban everything that could possibly be
used for a weapon. After all, the FBI states that three out of four violent
crimes have nothing to do with firearms. Or we could take a real bite out
of crime and tighten up our borders, keep the pressure on drug
cartels/street gangs/militants, build prisons, and hand out stiffer
sentences. Who knows, maybe we could even bring back capital punishment to
the state of Illinois.

Mike A. Schwerer

Peoria