Posted on 04/01/2011 9:40:16 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
Based on 14 years worth of data that shows half of Seattle's crimes take place on 4.5 percent of its streets, the Office of the City Auditor released a study March 29 recommending the Seattle Police Department focus its energy on a handful of high-crime areas.
The report, "Addressing Crime and Disorder in Seattle's 'Hot Spots': What Works?," was spurred when Seattle City Councilmembers Tim Burgess and Tom Rasmussen asked the Office of the City Auditor to look into how the city was dealing with graffiti and litter.
That process led to research that suggested efforts to focus on high-crime city blocks, or hot spots, can be effective in reducing crime and disorder, according to the Office of the City Auditor. Furthermore, the report finds, counter to what some may think, displacing crime and disorder in one area does not move it to an adjacent area.
The March 29 report references three studies of crime in Seattle that bolster its hot spot theory.
A 2004 study of data from the Seattle Police Department and Seattle Public Utilities showed 50 percent of Seattle's crime was perpetrated in 4.5 percent of its "street segments." In other words, 1,500 street segment, out of 30,000 in the city, were responsible for half the crime. And, crime in those hot spots remained stable for 14 years.
A 2009 study of juvenile crimes showed that 86 (0.29 percent) of Seattle's 30,000 street segments were responsible for one-third of juvenile crime over a 14-year period.
Finally, a study in 2010 showed that violent crimes, physical disorder (such as graffiti and litter) and social disorder (such as public drunkenness) concentrate at hot spots. About 12 percent of census blocks accounted for almost half of Seattle's social disorder and graffiti and other physical disorders were strongly correlated to the presence of violent crimes, according to the study.
"These 'powerful few' hot spots are responsible for many of the disorder problems in Seattle," according to the Office of the City Auditor's report.
The report concludes that it would be more efficient and effective for SPD to focus on the 1,500 hot spots responsible for half the city's crime than to attempt to focus on the equivalent 6,108 offenders responsible for the same amount of crime each year.
Hot spot approaches to policing have been successful in Minneapolis, Kansas City, Jersey City, Oakland and elsewhere, according to the Office of the City Auditor.
In order to replicate that success, the report recommends SPD use data to identify hot spots, focus resources there and collaborate with community stakeholders, such as neighbors, business association, churches and neighborhood watch groups.
According to the Office of the City Auditor's report, focusing on hot spots would not require funding an entirely new program; SPD would just have to use existing resources in a better way. For example, SPD could spend discretionary dollars on a few small hot spots instead of spreading them thin across all neighborhoods.
But, that approach may not go over well with residents outside of hot spots who continue to push for increased police presence and see themselves as deserving as the same amount of SPD energy as their more troubled neighbors.
The city attempted a small version of a hot spot program in October 2010.
As part of the Clean and Green Seattle Initiative, SPD partnered with property owners, neighbors, nonprofits and others to clean up the intersection of 23rd Avenue and East Union Street, where there had been a 30-year history of open-air drug dealing.
According to SPD, calls from that intersection dropped from an average of 30 per month to nine in December 2010.
The Department of the City Auditor concludes its report by offering to work with city leaders on their decision-making process regarding a hot spot policing approach.
Seems like those hot spots would be good places to go back to having cops walking a beat. More visibility and more interaction with the people.
Democrats’ solution? Ban the streets!
“Any sane person who knows the area shouldn’t be driving down MLK Way”
According to the old Chris Rock bit, you don’t even need to know the area. If you are on a street named after MLK anywhere in America, RUN!
Combat crime, quit paying for illegitimacy (the vast majority of criminals come from single mother households).
Another success story brought to you by LBJs Great Society. < /s > ;~((
I have never seen a cop in the Pioneer Square area, but used to see cops in the Bowery, but that was in the days of cops walking a beat.
Let me see if I can guess without reading the article:
Martin Luther King Boulevard
Malcolm X Boulevard
Cesar Chavez Boulevard
How did I do?
nuttin
This amazes me. 1st a 14 year study cost how much? And it looks like there was a study to study the summary and write an additional report...how much did that jewel cost? To study something law enforcement uses as a tool, wasn’t it some type of “containment policy” to allow certain areas to have these kind of problems sparing more desirable neighborhoods from similar crime?
An egregious waste of resources. They could have had learned the same results by walking into a squad room and talking to some veteran officers for free.
When was Empire Way renamed MLK Blvd.?
“When was Empire Way renamed MLK Blvd.?”
1983, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streets_named_after_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.#cite_note-11
Thanks.
I was serving in Asia and missed it.
Not only that but.....
The county was originally named after William Rufus King who was Vice-President when the Washington Territory was created. In 1986 a motion was introduced by Ron Sims (a black Democrat from Seattle), and Bruce Laing (a white Republican from suburban Renton) to rename the county after Martin Luther King, Jr. No public hearings or votes were taken on the change.
Good, it will be easy to undo after the revolution.
Smart Bombs are the answer.
I stay out of Seattle. I used to a Mariners game once a year but not anymore. My wife is from Everett and we go there once in a while but only to visit family and friends in relatively safe neighborhoods.
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Not only that but.....
The county was originally named after William Rufus King who was Vice-President when the Washington Territory was created. In 1986 a motion was introduced by Ron Sims (a black Democrat from Seattle), and Bruce Laing (a white Republican from suburban Renton) to rename the county after Martin Luther King, Jr. No public hearings or votes were taken on the change.
***
Yeah, I remember that fiasco. The County Which Shall Remain Nameless (lol) spent a half-a-million dollars just to change the *county logo* from that of a crown to that of a likeness of MLK. Never mind what else has been spent to assuage the County’s political correctness bug ...
Since we renamed KING County, and William Rufus deVane King was Vice-President when the Washington Territory was created, shouldn’t we rename PIERCE County as well? After all, Franklin Pierce was President at the time ...
I wonder whether the LA Kings ice hockey team will change their obviously racist “crown” logo and stop “dissing” MLK.
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