Rising Crime During COVID & Defund The Police Movement—How Can Security Help You?

There are signs that crime is increasing in some U.S. communities, particularly homicides in major cities. Some have explicitly blamed this rise on the protests and changes following George Floyd’s murder last May. Others have made the same claim in more suggestive ways. Progressives pointed to the growth in poverty and hardship during the pandemic. Conservatives have begun accusing Democrats and the Biden administration of the shift. The real answer likely challenges simple or casual description—but criminal activities are increasingly affecting cities across the nation.

Violent crime is clearly on the rise. Portland, Oregon, a city condemned by conservatives for its public clashes over policing, has seen an 800% year to date increase in homicides. Other major cities are undergoing surges in homicides. In Milwaukee, homicides are up 37% this year, on pace to break the record of 167 in 1991, which included 16 murders by convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Homicides so far this year in Chicago are leading compared to 2016, which marked the city’s highest tab since 1996. In New York and Los Angeles, which have seen declining homicides for years, killings this year are up 23% and 11.6%, respectively. Since January, Kansas City has registered 99 killings, far outpacing any record for the first six months of the year.

Police departments, already facing budget cuts due to falling tax revenues from pandemic lockdowns, are also threatened by calls to “defund the police”. Covid-19 has also made it tough for officers to conduct community outreach, say, experts, worsening police-community relations.

New York City dismissed its anticrime unit of plainclothes officers on June 15, part of a $1 billion reduction in the city’s police budget. The city logged 205 shootings in June, the biggest for the month since 1996. Police cited the release of some prisoners from Rikers Island amid coronavirus concerns and bail changes that went into place earlier in the year.

Some scholars, such as Princeton University sociologist Patrick Sharkey, state, “My argument is that in regions where communities go through periods of disinvestment and where institutions break down, people feel like they are on their own,” Sharkey told The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson in an interview in March. “This generates conditions where violence becomes more likely. As a place becomes more violent, people change their behavior. They become more likely to understand uncertainty in an aggressive way, more likely to carry a weapon, more likely to act promptly or first if they feel threatened. This cascading effect, where violence generates violence, has been reinforced in the past year.”

Private Security Options

Law-enforcement officials are wrestling with a sharp rise in violent crime, while also dealing with a national debate over the role of police and calls to lessen police-department budgets. Like all U.S. employers, the law enforcement community is also struggling with a shrinking labor pool of eligible candidates. In such a state private security can be of huge assistance who can not only protect neighborhoods but also individuals. Routinely contracted out to residential and commercial properties, private security companies provide clients with a full suite of capabilities. With services ranging from armed or unarmed security guards, to roving vehicle patrols, to mobile surveillance cameras, private security companies are often able to provide round-the-clock service to fill in the gaps left when law enforcement simply doesn’t have the capacity to support the community.

How We Can Help

Founded by Bob Kinder, a retired military officer with more than two decades of military service in both the U.S. Air Force and Army special operations communities, The Kinder Group, a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business, was formed to meet the unique and specific needs of individuals, business entities and those for whom tailored layers of protection and security are required or preferred.

At The Kinder Group, we are committed to provide the country with every security measure we can in the best possible manner. Our services include:

• Armed Security Officers: The Kinder Group provides comprehensive protection of senior staff, congregants, and other high-profile individuals. Services begin with a thorough analysis of risks, threats, and vulnerabilities related to the security of the premises and the people. We collaborate with the local law enforcement community, leveraging their threat intelligence, physical presence, and ability to rapidly react to threats.  Our goal is to provide a seamless and transparent layer of protection, allowing our clients to reside safely and securely.
• Surveillance Systems: The Kinder Group provides clients asset protection through the planning, installation, and deployment of state-of-the-art surveillance systems. We established a strategic partnership with Security Concepts, Inc., New England’s foremost authority in integrated security systems and advanced building technologies. We work together to help our clients via an in-depth assessment, followed by recommending software and hardware solutions ranging from access control systems to intrusion detection for local businesses, medical facilities, large corporate office buildings, as well as institutions of higher educations and religious structures
• Wireless CCTV: The Kinder Group provides Wireless CCTV via wireless, closed-circuit TV mini dome solar trailer specifically designed to deliver video securely and efficiently via 4G LTE networks.
  • Our product portfolio includes rapid deployment pole cameras, solar-powered mobile video surveillance trailers, 4G LTE-enabled body cameras, and time-lapse video services.
  • This rapid-deployment solution coordinated with The Kinder Group’s pole cameras allows for the immediate targeting of areas of interest and quick relocation should surveillance requirements change at a significantly reduced cost over fixed surveillance cameras.