(photo courtesy of KOMONews.com)
The first phase of Tacoma’s new violent crime reduction plan saw the numbers start to drop significantly.
The first 90-day phase takes 16 addresses, mostly businesses, with the biggest concentrations of violent crimes, like robberies and aggravated assaults, and places police officers there with lights on for 15 minute periods at prime time for crime. University of Texas criminologist, Doctor Mike Smith, who helped craft the plan, told city leaders they not only started to see violent crime drop in those hot spots, but they also didn’t see it simply move away into nearby neighborhoods. “Crime was down citywide,” Smith says, “about 20-percent during the treatment months compared to where crime was in the previous 12 months on average.”
The plan works strictly by the numbers…no race, age nor income demographics factor into it, so Tacoma Police Chief , Avery Moore, says in a city where concerns about over-policing in communities of color are raised often, he’s seen an added benefit. “When I first got here, I got a lot of calls about over-policing. Since the crime plan, I haven’t gotten any.”
The next phase, which is now underway, involves adding that extra visibility at some new hot spots and keeping some that “rolled over”. It also involves looking at what’s behind the violent crime in those specific areas, with the ultimate goal of addressing it to prevent violence.
