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Steve Chronister For York County Commissioner |
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CompStat CompStat is a comparative statistical approach to mapping crime that was developed by Giuliani and Bratton in New York City (2). The CompStat program calls for precinct officers to be put in charge of many operational decisions in their certain areas of the city. Meetings are then held between the precinct officers and department executives to go over statistics of crime in the areas they are responsible for. This program was one of the contributing factors to the tremendous decrease in crime in New York City during Giuliani’s mayoral term. The CompStat program is based upon Broken Windows by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which talks about how to prevent small crimes from leading to the ruin of communities through an increase in police officers on foot and an attendance to run-down areas of neighborhoods (3). In order to catch all crimes, large and small, in York County, we are proposing the inclusion of a new unit called the Crime Response Unit (CRU). The CRU will consist of people hired from the communities they are serving to stand at intersections with police radios and report crimes to police officers. CRU will also be a job program for our young people to give them employment skills and the assistance with pursuing further education or other careers after the completion of the CRU program. To also assist our youth through all levels of education from nursery school through college, we are proposing several outreach programs and provided classes based upon the University of Southern California’s Center for Economic Development Community Outreach Partnership Center. We are also proposing new developments in our school system and budget that can help increase the benefit our school systems have on our children. We are suggesting the addition of a Chancellor of Education to our county’s employment who will be empowered to oversee education in the county and to assist our young people with their educational and employment goals. By utilizing the successes of Mayor Giuliani’s programs in New York City, the addition of the Crime Response Unit (CRU), and both the actions of USC and our own development in the school system towards improving education and outreach in the community, we can make our community a safer and more beneficial place for our citizens, our family members, and our friends to live in. CompStat and Broken Windows By examining Mayor Giuliani’s programs in New York City and applying them to York County, we could potentially lower York County’s crime rate. Giuliani’s initiation of the CompStat program in New York City, along with many other policies, led to a decrease in New York City’s crime of around 70%. CompStat is “a comparative statistical approach to mapping crime geographically and in terms of emerging criminal patterns, as well as charting officer performance by quantifying criminal apprehensions” (2). CompStat (short for Computer Statistics or Comparative Statistics) began in 1994 in the New York City Police Department. Led by Police Commissioner William Bratton and his Deputy Commissioner John Maple, “conventional community policing ideology” was modified by the recognition that “ in order for this department to be effective in reducing crime and in responding to the needs of communities, many operational decisions should be made by commanders at the precinct level…based on the assumption that local authorities could best institute crime reduction techniques specific to their experiential knowledge of their own localities” (3). By giving the power to the precinct officers, the operation of the police department benefits from their knowledge of how to institute crime reduction techniques in their own localities (3). The program CompStat also involves weekly meetings between ranking police department executives and local precinct officers from specific areas of New York City to discuss problems identified through the statistical mapping of crimes in those areas. This system, while increasing the authority, responsibility, and discretion of precinct officers, also enhances their accountability and holds them responsible for fluctuations in crime rate (3). This was one of the first initiatives Giuliani took as mayor, and was one of the contributing factors to the significant drop of the crime rate in New York City during his mayoral term. The overall purpose of CompStat was based upon ideas from the text of Broken Windows by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. Broken Windows addresses the reasoning behind the escalation of small crimes into large ones. The authors spent time researching and shadowing foot-patrol officers to learn about their effect on the community. According to research done by the authors, “social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken” (4). In the same way, vandalism occurs in communities where “communal barriers” (or the regard to civility) are broken down by small crimes like littering or breaking windows. These crimes indicate that no one cares, and therefore invite criminals, people out for fun, or people who would normally not commit such an act to also vandalize or litter, generally based upon human nature (4). This theory can be applied to both upscale neighborhoods and rundown ones. Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychologist, tested this theory by placing two cars without license plates along streets in the Bronx and Palo Alto. The car in the Bronx was set upon in ten minutes by vandals, but the car in Palo Alto sat untouched for more than a week until Zimbardo smashed it with a sledgehammer. Soon after, passersby joined in, and the car was turned upside down and wrecked within a few hours (4). Because of the general nature of community life and the frequent occurrence of small crimes in the Bronx, vandalism begins more quickly than in Palo Alto, where small crimes are less frequent and others’ possessions are held in higher regard. But this experiment also shows that vandalism can occur in any type of neighborhood once certain communal barriers, like a regard for the property of others, have been broken down and people are convinced that no one cares (4). Once vandalism and small crimes become more frequent, residents feel as if crime rates are increasing, and are more likely to stay inside their houses, avoid interaction with neighbors, and inevitably seek elsewhere to live. “For some residents, this growing atomization will matter little, because the neighborhood is not their ‘home’ but ‘the place where they live…’ but it will matter greatly to other people, whose lives derive meaning and satisfaction from local attachments rather than worldly involvement; for them, the neighborhood will cease to exist except for a few reliable friends whom they arrange to meet” (3). Communities such as these are more vulnerable to crime than places where citizens are confident that public behavior can be regulated. Broken Windows also looks at surveys done on the frequency of crime, showing that young men are more often attacked than older women, not because they are easier targets, but because older people tend to stay inside more often while young men are out on the streets more often. A survey by Susan Estrich from Harvard Law School demonstrates that nearly half of citizens in Baltimore cross the street to avoid even a single strange person. For citizens in Boston public housing projects, the greatest fear came from citizens living in buildings where disorderliness and incivility were greater than crime itself (3). One of the goals of Giuliani and Bratton, and one of our goals for the improvement of York County, is to empower police to act on these small crimes to keep them from turning into large ones and ultimately destroying communities. Broken Windows encourages police to take action against crimes such as turnstile jumping and defacing public property with graffiti, in order to send the message that they will respond to larger crimes and the city will become safer for residents. This instills a practice of trust between the citizens of a community and the police, and encourages the citizens to report even the smallest crimes to the police department with the faith that they will be handled accordingly. By putting precinct managers in charge of supervising cops and holding twice weekly meetings, Giuliani held the managers and police officers accountable for changes in crime rates. Because of his “no tolerance” policy, total crime fell by around 70% from 1993-2004. Prison rates rose to a peak of 400 per 100,000 population in New York City, but then started a five year decline in 2000 that has allowed New York City to close prisons, wings in other institutions, and to reduce the number of prison service staff members. This has led to a savings of $185 million per year just in staff costs in New York City (4). Giuliani’s crime initiative legacy is summarized in Addendum I: Dialing 311: How Computers, Cops, and Creativity Reduce Crime by Fred Siegel. Our goals with the use of the CompStat program in our own community are: to lower our crime rate
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