The Mayor of the city which I live in a suburb of says it's the police unions fault for the high crime rate in that city. I used to live in the city and its a disaster area, vacant buildings everywhere, shootings and stabbings everyday. Businesses leaving by the droves, drug problems, etc.
Statistics just came out and Nationally Rochester NY was I believe in the top 20 of the stats for terrible crime rates in the "Entire" Country ! The city has a higher per capita homicide rate than New York City. I think they just had 6 or 7 Homicides last week alone.
I always thought it was the criminals that were responsible for crime, not the police. Here's a link to the story on the news.
News Story From Rochester NY