FBI chief tries to deal with the ‘Ferguson effect’

A year after unrest in Ferguson, Mo., brought increased scrutiny of police, FBI Director James Comey has thrown his weight behind the idea that restraint by cops in the wake of criticism is at least partly to blame for a surge in violent crime in some cities.

The tensions over policing and crime come when, for the first time in a generation, unusual political forces have aligned and the nation appears on the verge of relaxing tough criminal sentencing laws. Liberals and conservatives now seem to agree that 1980’s-era anti-drug laws boosted U.S. prison populations too much, with the burden falling disproportionately on minority communities.

Some law enforcement officials, including Comey, are raising concerns that a spike in crime — or at least the perception that the recent era of historically low crime rates is at risk — could hurt criminal justice reforms efforts.

At the same time, a number of high-profile police shooting incidents, many caught on ubiquitous camera phones, have given rise to protests over policing tactics that critics call heavy-handed. In some cities, police officers privately report holding back on making stops for fear of ending up the next YouTube “bad cop” sensation. They call it the Ferguson effect.

Comey waded into the thorny issues at play in a speech Friday at the University of Chicago Law School, his alma mater. He has expressed worry about the spike in the number murders in some cities, and for the first time said it could be at least partly linked to what he called a “chill wind” police are facing in the wake of Ferguson.

“Far more people are being killed in America’s cities this year than in many years — and let’s be clear: far more people of color are being killed in America’s cities this year. And it’s not the cops doing the killing,” Comey said.

The FBI chief repeatedly used the phrase “all lives matter” in various contexts during his discussion led by Ruby Garrett, editor of the law school’s Legal Forum and president of the Black Law Students Association. The phrase has drawn controversy because some view it as a response to the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement. The two spoke before a mostly white student audience.

The provocative remarks expanded on themes Comey first broached in a 2014 speech at Georgetown University, where he acknowledged racial biases were at times to blame for “lazy mental shortcuts” that lead to more police stops of young black men.

But in Friday’s speech, and again Sunday, he said he was trying to start a conversation about whether the pendulum has swung too far.

“In today’s YouTube world, are officers reluctant to get out of their cars and do the work that controls violent crime? Are officers answering 911 calls but avoiding the informal contact that keeps bad guys from standing around, especially with guns?” he asked in his Friday remarks. “I don’t know whether this explains it entirely, but I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year. And that wind is surely changing behavior.”

Ray Kelly, the former commissioner of the New York Police Department, said Monday that police are no longer “taking the initiative,” which he said accounts for some of the rise in crime.

“I commend Jim Comey for telling it like it is,” Kelly told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” “Officers are not engaging in proactive policing, not engaging in the levels they engaged in the recent past.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday there was no evidence that police officers were “shirking” their duties given increased scrutiny on law enforcement, seeming to rebut FBI Director James Comey’s assertion last week.

More From CNN: