Ferguson effect

The Ferguson effect is the idea that increased scrutiny of police following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has led to an increased crime rate (or sometimes increased murder rate) in major U.S. cities. The mechanism usually suggested is that police have less vigorous enforcement in situations that might lead to backlash, though other mechanisms are suggested. The term was coined by Doyle Sam Dotson III, the chief of the St. Louis police, to account for an increased murder rate in some U.S. cities following the Ferguson unrest.

The concept has been criticized by some academics and politicians as being inaccurate or non-existent, including former President Barack Obama.

The term was coined by Dotson in a 2014 column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Dotson said in the column that, after the protests in Ferguson caused by the shooting of Michael Brown that August, his officers had been hesitant to enforce the law due to fears of being charged, and that "the criminal element is feeling empowered" as a result.

The term became popular after Heather Mac Donald used it in a May 29, 2015, Wall Street Journal op-ed. The op-ed stated that the rise in crime rates in some U.S. cities was due to "agitation" against police forces. She further stated that "Unless the demonization of law enforcement ends, the liberating gains in urban safety will be lost," and quoted a number of police officers as saying police morale was at an all-time low. In 2015, Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, suggested that nationwide backlash against police brutality had led to officers disengaging, which, in turn, had led to violent crime increasing.

In May 2016, FBI Director James Comey used the term "viral video effect" when commenting on significant increases in homicide rates in many large U.S. cities in the first half of the year. Comey specifically singled out the cities of Chicago (which murders were up 54 percent from 2015 and shootings were up by 70 percent) and Las Vegas. The term was also used by Chuck Rosenberg, director of the DEA.

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Wikipedia