City Police Reduce Crime Rates

In response to the constant struggle with violent crime in America’s big cities, law enforcement officials in New York and Chicago have started to develop innovative tactics that target criminal behavior in its individual communities. Police agencies in both cites have begun focusing on the sources of violent crimes within individual areas. By addressing criminal behavior with an orientation towards better public relations, mainly between the community and the police, officers have begun to lower the rates of violent crimes in their respective cities.

According to a recent article in The Economist, six Chicago police districts, in response to 36 gang-related shootings in the month of April, have adopted a system of disincentives developed by the Boston police to stop gang violence. In 1996, Boston created a coalition of federal, state, and local agencies to enforce a new policy: if a gang kills, the state would target not only the murderer, but the rest of their known associates for any possible crimes investigators could turn up. Since the policy was enacted, long-term studies show a significant drop in youth murders.

The idea of creating a disincentive for crime was applied in a more dynamic fashion in New York. Labeled “Operation Impact,” the New York City Police have developed a program that maps out areas of the city that require the most attention and then saturate the area with officers, The Economist reported in April. The notable difference is that the area is saturated mainly with officers working on foot, allowing the officers to better involve themselves with the life of the community and creating a more intimate police presence.

Reviewing these policies, we can start to see a major shift in American police tactics. Far removed from the Reagan era “drug wars” where law enforcement was merely the blunt end of national policy, agencies today are having to develop tactics that address the community as a unique entity. Crime, we are coming to realize, is a product of its own environment and so what works in one city will not necessarily work in another. However, there appears to be a trend of coupling a comprehensive response to trouble areas within the city with an emphasis on enhancing public relations. Part of the Boston policies in 1996 were to not only create a disincentive, but also to educate gang members on the help and services the law enforcement coalition could provide pending their cooperation.

Decreased crime rates where these community tailored tactics are applied speak for themselves. In each of the mentioned instances, the agencies' newly adopted tactics resulted in lowered violent crime rates. Illustrating that best results in this struggle with inter-city crime comes from an intimate knowledge of the community and officers armed with that information.

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