$500,000 per Conviction; Now Don't You Feel Safer?

Back in early 2009, I wrote about the cost of arresting over 800 people at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, and speculated on what the cost per final conviction would be.

Well, the RNC8 cases have finally been settled or dropped, so we're very close to having the final numbers. $50 million was spent, which came to $61,125 per arrest. As I wrote earlier, "Each remaining arrest [in February 2009] now carries a price tag of about $245,000 (not counting prosecution costs), and I'm still betting we'll get up to at least $1 million per arrest for each conviction."

How many of the 818 people arrested finally pleaded guilty or were convicted of something? 16 on the county level (10 felonies and 6 gross misdemeanors) and 87 on the city level (source). That's about one in eight of the original arrests -- or just about $500,000 per conviction, not counting additional prosecution costs. A number of those are petty misdemeanors.

Yet another reason to vote Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher out of office next Tuesday.