A Washington, D.C., police union chairman said a recent survey indicates that more than 70% of the city's cops say they are thinking about leaving their jobs.
During a Wednesday appearance on Fox’s “Fox & Friends First,” Greggory Pemberton said the survey revealed that police officers aren’t just considering leaving their current position, but “the vast majority were considering leaving law enforcement altogether.”
“When people realize that they put their lives and their freedom, and their families in jeopardy they’re going to start looking at other careers,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a lot of police officers leave law enforcement and that’s going to leave us in a really bad place.”
Pemberton said he hasn’t seen such low morale from police officers since calls for police reform took place in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. He said that protests against police aggression created something known as the “Ferguson Effect,” where law enforcement officers felt like they were under suspicion for improper conduct.
“My concerns are that what’s going on right now makes what happened in 2015 look like child’s play,” he said. “And I think rather than seeing police officers sit on their hands or fail to be more apprehensive about doing police work, I think you’re actually see people leaving law enforcement.”
Nationwide there are calls for police reform and even requests to defund police departments in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man, who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis last month.
Since then, some major cities have seen spikes in crime. Pemberton said the homicide rate in Washington is up 10% from last year.
He said reports of crime rates increasing are “pretty alarming.”
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