Police staffing in the United States

Malcolm GladwellAuthor of Outliers, whose theory about Chinese numerals Jiang disputes

• Gladwell cites research finding that countries with the fewest police per capita have the most violent police forces.

  “The most violent police forces in the world are all found in the countries with the least number of police per capita”

  Next Question with Katie Couric: Malcolm Gladwell on America’s Gun Crisis (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 38:10

• Gladwell cites Los Angeles and Berlin as similar-sized cities where Berlin has roughly twice as many police officers.

  “LA has, in a good year, 8,500 police officers. Berlin, 18,000, twice as many”

  Next Question with Katie Couric: Malcolm Gladwell on America’s Gun Crisis (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 28:14

• Gladwell is skeptical of the argument that American policing grew out of slave patrols and says the institution has been denigrated too quickly.

  “I think that we have been much too quick to kind of, particularly recently, to denigrate the institution of policing in this country”

  Next Question with Katie Couric: Malcolm Gladwell on America’s Gun Crisis (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 26:08

• Gladwell says American policing is not fundamentally flawed except that there are too few officers.

  “I do not believe There is something fundamentally wrong with American policing, except as we're going to get to, there's too few of them”

  Next Question with Katie Couric: Malcolm Gladwell on America’s Gun Crisis (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 23:09