“… arresting suspects at nearly the same rate as the force was about four decades ago.”
Before there were cameras everywhere.
Yeah and two decades ago they told me once they make Philadelphia a sanctuary city, the illegals will no longer fear the police and crimes will be solved quicker and peace will reign throughout.
I never saw or heard any account of that happening anywhere but I'm certain there is more than one Kensington Ave in our Country.
On another level, I've been UNable to access Social Security in order to upgrade the verification process they require because the email address I provided to SS long ago no longer exists and getting a new one requires submitting a picture of myself from my smart phone along with an accepted proof of ID.
But I don't have a smart phone, sez I. Hmmmm sez the answer guy, I'll have to check; hold on.
In that case, he sez when he returned, you have to go to the post office and have them take the necessary pictures.
So, after a suitable cooling off period, I go down to the PO like I'm told, and they were very friendly and concerned folks. We aren't participants in that process they told me (even though they provide passport pictures) in fact, they never knew they could do that.
All this wonderful security, as you subtly infer, is to convince US it's for our own protection from the flourishing criminal enterprises even though it was the politicians running the government who have been letting the illegals in by the tens of thousands every year, most likely since before 911.