The protection of citizens through police services is one of the most important functions of local governments.Countless times, and in countless ways, local governments have been called on to respond to crimes in the communities that they represent. 

Citizens across the world benefit from the policing efforts of their local governments, but every resource spent on police efforts can be additional budgeting burden or negatively impact the bottom line. The frugal manager is prompted to ask: What can I do to reduce the amount of crime that my municipality must respond to? How can I prevent crime?

Here are seven changes your municipality can make that will result in a stronger community with less crime.  

1. Make crime prevention your top priority. One year after the Lancaster, CA. City Council set public safety as their top priority, crime statistics already reflected a reduction in the rate of crime.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

2. Change the way you allocate your staff. The police force in Goodyear, AZ. found that it was able to build stronger relationships with the community, while preventing crime, through a clever, cost-effective change in where its officers do their desk work.

3. Clean up the environment around you. The way that your community looks affects how citizens feel about it, and the likelihood that a criminal would feel comfortable there.  Cleaning up that old, dark alley; investing in your citizens; and reacting in a timely manner to vandalism in your community could be all it takes to prevent future crimes.

4. Partner up with outside groups. The communities of Downers Grove and Westmont, IL. found that they were able to protect their communities while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars when they opted to combine their emergency dispatching services.

5. Engage kids in your community through new programs. When they realized that their community engagement programs were not reaching all of the children who needed community support, city officials in North Lauderdale, FL. established a Teen Club to engage kids and keep them away from the pressures and temptations of the streets.

6. Engage adults in your community. Faced with high incidences of neighborhood-based crime, and without experts or manpower to combat it, San Antonio, TX. turned to its citizens to take the lead on fighting back.  In 1997, they created the Volunteers in Policing (VIP) program. 2,500 volunteers and over 400,000 person hours later, the program is seen as indispensable to the city.

7. Consult with ICMA’s Center for Public Safety Management. Consultation with ICMA’s Center for Public Safety Management helped the city of Annapolis, MD. “turn a huge corner” on crime.  With  a tracking and mapping program that the Center developed and some staffing changes, Annapolis’s elected officials were “better positioned to establish a long-range strategic plan for the delivery of police services to the community.”

What sorts of managerial changes have yielded lower crime rates for you? Let me know!

For more ideas and discussions on Crime Prevention, Police, and Public Safety, turn to the topics page on the Knowledge Network.

Aloha,

James Davidson

Knowledge Network Intern