Thread by @JohnFPfaff

I've been thinking about this graph a lot lately, and I think it misstates the nature of policing in the US.

The issue isn't the SCALE of policing in the US, but its NATURE.

In terms of police PER CAPITA, the US appears to be... BELOW average, even compared to most of Europe.

https://twitter.com/stephensemler/status/1382106811013197825

Comparing spending is tough, bc so much police spending is wages:spending reflects things like union power, purchasing power parity, etc., etc., etc.

Per capita policing seem like a more apples-to-apples comparison.

Our staffing is middling. Which means the issue is APPROACH.

There are, of course, some major gaps in the UN ODC data (available here: dataunodc.un.org/data/crime/Pol…). Most obv are the missing big countries: China (1), India (2), Indonesia (4), Pakistan (5), Brazil (6), Nigeria (7), and Bangladesh (8).

But the US/Euro comp is informative.

The US has fewer police per capita than almost all European countries. But a much higher incarceration rate, a much higher rate of police violence, and on and on.

I'm not a comparativist, so I don't have any deep points to draw from this. But that's the frame we should take.

Finally, meant to state earlier: I feel like there's an implicit assumption that military budgets > police budgets for most countries, thus making the comparison of US police to others' military comparable.

But is that true? Or do (lots?) of places have police > military?

Also, just came across this, from here (cfr.org/backgrounder/h…) which compares OECD countries' police spending as % of GDP. Like the per capita graph, paints the US as... middle of the pack (but again, it's a hard # to interpret).