Left In Lowell

Reader Tim L sent me this link to a Boston Globe article, “Cleaning up crime in Lowell” about the recent anti-crime experiment here. Dick wrote about that experiment as well.

The broken windows theory proposes that cleaning up a neighborhood, ie fixing its broken windows and empty lots, and police attention to minor crimes, will reduce the crime and the fear of crime in that area. A controlled study was conducted in Lowell in 2005, where 34 different areas were divided up into areas given this special attention, versus areas with standard police details and no special attention. The result showed a 20% drop in calls to the police.

Pointedly, cleaning up the physical environment led to the largest reduction in crime. Misdemeanor arrests proved less effective than cleanups. And the intensification of social services had almost no effect. Those results could differ over a longer study period. But in a time of shrinking municipal budgets, city officials ignore such findings at their own peril.

I can think of some blighted areas of the city where buildings owned by certain City Councilors could use a little of this special attention…