On the campaign trail, Donald Trump painted a dire picture of a violence-torn nation where residents lived in fear. He told Detroit residents they were likely to be raped or mugged walking across the street. He said mass immigration ,has “brought crimes, drugs, misery and death.” Drug addiction, dangerous mental illness and homelessness have become too common a sight in cities, turning them into “unlivable, unsanitary nightmares,” his campaign said. Many jurisdictions are pursuing more punitive approaches. For most of this century, movement on criminal justice has been toward so-called reform policies that have aimed to keep people out of prison by giving them the tools they need to avoid re-offending, such as job training and drug treatments. Advocates argue it’s a mistake to pull the plug on such efforts, reports Governing. Trump advocates for minimal limits on law enforcement and for encouraging police to use any and all methods to combat crime, even if that means suspending residents’ constitutional rights and allowing officers to act aggressively and “lawlessly,” according to Delores Jones-Brown, director of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Center on Race, Crime and Justice.
“I'm afraid with our new incoming administration that there's going to be more of an emphasis on the police as the answer to virtually anything that's considered wrong in society,” Jones-Brown says. “We're not going to just be limiting policing to serious violent crime, and we're not going to be limiting policing to using mechanisms that are within the constitutional standards.” Trump’s new term will begin at a time when both reported violent crime and most property crimes are down nationally and murder rates have fallen dramatically. Other indicators of strain are apparent. Police are solving fewer crimes. Drug overdose deaths, while down significantly this year, are still higher than they were before 2020. Homelessness has been increasing. Everyday people likely aren’t looking at crime data, and political support for national actions may depend more on how residents feel walking around their neighborhoods, says Kevin Ring of Arnold Ventures, which funds research into criminal justice policy. Trump is expected to repeal an executive order that President Biden signed in 2022 that addressed issues including officers’ mental health, police recruitment, conditions in jails and safeguards against excessive use of force, and it restricted or banned chokeholds and no-knock entries. The order also created a national police misconduct database and limited law enforcement agencies’ ability to obtain certain military equipment.