Greater Austin Crime Commission
Public safety is a community concern
February 8, 2012
Lights Thwarting Crime?
Many cities across the country have attempted to deter criminal activity in high crime areas by keeping the lights in these areas turned on until late at night. Parks make up of most of these test areas and almost all have seen a reduction in crime after the lights were kept on later, but whether or not the lights are the main factor for this is still up for speculation.
This year Los Angeles has added eight parks to the city's "Summer Night Lights" program that keeps the lights on until midnight at 24 parks throughout the city's areas of high level crime, as part of a community-wide effort to buckle down on crime.
"We're not just turning on the lights—that's the easy part," reports Guillermo Cespedes, director of the mayor's Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development. The community program brings other resources to the park including sports leagues, food, dancing lessons and increased presence of police.
In the program's first summer, Los Angeles witnessed a 17% decline from the previous summer in violent gang-related crimes in The city experienced an overall decrease of 10% in gang-related crime levels during this same time.
Similar programs have had parallel results in places like Fort Worth, Chicago and Kansas City. Although skeptics point out that a comprehensive study has not been performed comparing areas with the late night lights to those without them, all evidence and history of these programs shows a likely correlation.
To view a WSJ article on the issue, follow this link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704249004575385754270183396.html
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