Public Safety is a key need, studies including Maslow’s confirm this.
We are empowered as a community to work together without waiting for new tax money or legislative action. There is much we can do immediately.
I will work with you at the neighborhood level in addition to the legislative level in each community of the 34th District on a minimum of 3 proven crime reduction solutions, Creating an affordable and actionable crime reduction model which will influence new policy for a safer community.
- Identification and attention of hot-spots. These micro-locations are often responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in a community. Policing Hot-Spots is a crime management theory that targets geography. Just like people, locations also have traits and tendencies. Fine tuning resources to target these hot-spots has proven effective in reducing crime. I will work at the legislative and community level to raise awareness and support Police in these locations. When looking at a large cross section of studies we see crime reduces consistently 20-40%, including violent crime and gun violence. Note links below for further details. https://www.policinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Weisburd-2008-Place-Based-Policing.pdf https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341966.001.0001/acprof-9780195341966
- Mentorship connect, a large factor for neighborhood crime is vulnerable youth and recently-released-from-prison yet unsupported persons. When support and mentorship are present in these two categories, we see crime numbers offset greatly. Data from various studies show 20-50% reduction, depending on how data is analyzed. At the community level, we are empowered to support already thriving mentorship connection programs that provide healthy modeling, as well as training and resources. By working together with proven program concepts, we can keep down both monetary and human costs in our community.
Information Links below. https://crimesolutions.ojp.gov/ratedpractices/15 https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/mentoring-programs-youth-promising-intervention-delinquency-prevention
- Cleaning and greening vacant or neglected lots/green-spaces. This would include pea-patch or community garden development. This simple strategy employed at the community level and requiring comparatively low resources is proven to reduce crime significantly. Some statistics say there is a crime reduction of as much as 30%, and this includes violent crime and gun violence. More neighbors are more likely to be outside in their yards in communities where this program is implemented, thus creating even safer environments by building relationship among neighbors. I will partner with legislative measures and provide leadership and momentum at the community level that support these and other steps.