St. Louis Five-Year Consolidated Plan Strategy

St. Louis Five Year Consolidated Plan Strategy

Chapter 3

ANTI-CRIME PROGRAMS

Serious crime in the United States continued its downward trend in 1997, and the City of St. Louis experienced a decrease that was even more heartening. Total crime nationwide dropped 4% from 1996 to 1997, while St. Louis showed a 9.3% decline. Violent crime in St. Louis was down 6% from 1996 to 1997, one percentage point better than the national average, and property crime was down 1%, six percentage points better than the country's decline. The City's biggest crime drop was in theft, which was down 19%, although car theft increased 12% from 1996 to 1997. The number of cases of arson also increased.

CURRENT SERVICES

Some of the programs that exist in the City to combat crime include:

Ceasefire. In August 1998, St. Louis officials started a collaborative crime prevention effort among multiple organizations. This two-fold program, called Ceasefire, provides opportunities for job training and education and gives heavy prison time to offenders who don't take advantage of it. There is also a major emphasis on gun interdiction.
St. Louis Neighborhood Stabilization Team (NST). NST serves as a catalyst to bring together autonomous City departments, police, and neighborhood residents to solve neighborhood problems. There are 27 Neighborhood Stabilization Officers (NSOs) who serve all 79 neighborhoods in the City of St. Louis, led by a six-member administrative team. In addition to crime prevention, the program aims at improving housing, education, neighborhood marketing, recreation, cleanup, and beautification.
Neighborhood Watch. Neighborhood watch programs comprise citizens interested in decreasing the amount of crime, such as burglary and vandalism, that occur in their neighborhoods. As part of the program, St. Louis City residents are trained by the District Public Affairs Officer to protect their property and themselves by securing their homes from unlawful entry, identifying their personal property through marking, photography, and preparing property inventories, and maintaining a trained watch in their neighborhoods to report suspicious activities to the police department.
Anonymous Crime Hotline. The St. Louis Police Department has a Crime Hotline, which is a 24-hour-a-day service. By calling 241-COPS, residents can anonymously give information on drug, gang, and violent crime activity in their neighborhoods.
Operation Weed & Seed. Weed & Seed is a U.S. Department of Justice initiative designed to "weed" out violent crime, drug use and gang activity from selected neighborhoods and to help prevent crime from recurring by "seeding" those sites with a wide variety of resources, both public and private.
Aid for Victims of Crime Inc. (AVC). AVC services are available for St. Louis City residents or other victims if a crime is committed in City. Services offered include emotional/physical/ financial assistance. AVC also offers personal emotional support, location of community resources, assistance with victim compensation claims, counseling services, criminal justice system advocacy, advocacy with creditors, employers, family, and friends, information on victim issues and victim rights in Missouri, training and technical assistance for professionals, and crisis response team services for communities in crisis.
St. Louis Drug Court. The drug court is a national best practice started in Florida. It opened in April 1997 and provides an alternate approach to jailing non-violent drug offenders.
Enterprise Community Crime Prevention Program. The St. Louis Enterprise Community has provided funding support to most residential neighborhoods in the EC-approved area. Funds have gone towards lighting, gangway gates, police substation support, youth activities, and other programs designed by neighborhood residents.
Curfew Center and Truancy Center Program. Local law enforcement block grant funds provide centers staffed by recreation assistants, off-duty police officers, juvenile officers, and social service providers. An assessment and referral process is available for repeat offenders or violators with behavior problems.
Gang Abatement Program. The intent is to identify at-risk youth who are associating with gang members and to counsel them and their families. A special gun suppression program focuses on getting guns off the street.
School Safety Zone Demolition Program. Vacant, unsafe buildings within 1000 feet of a school or other building where children congregate are demolished, thereby removing potential sites for criminal activity.
Team Sweep. Police officers work with adult block coordinators and youth volunteers on clean-up projects. The goal is to build a relationship between police and youth and adult volunteers, and to mount an organized effort to reduce crime and build confidence at the block level.
National Night Out. This joint crime prevention program between police officers and the Neighborhood Stabilization Team strives to organize blocks and celebrate the ordinary resident's ability to overcome crime.
Emergency Room Intervention. A crisis intervention team works with police officers to help victims of gang violence who are brought into a City trauma center. The goal is to break the cycle of retaliatory gang violence.
Domestic Violence Calls. This crisis intervention approach combines a social worker with police responding to disturbance calls. Support services are provided to victims and counseling for the abuser.
Cops on the Block/Officer Next Door Program. Both of these programs make it easier for St. Louis City police officers to buy homes in the City, with special forgivable loans for certain neighborhoods. This allows for a heightened police presence in City neighborhoods.
Neighborhood Organizations. Many neighborhood organizations have established crime prevention committees. Their mission is to unify St. Louis neighborhoods by involving the total family, and all aspects of community including churches, teachers, social workers, city and state representatives and neighborhood businesses.
Combat Auto Theft (CAT) Program. CAT was started as a pilot program in two Queens' precincts in the New York City Police Department. The program, aimed at deterring auto thefts, was expanded to include additional precincts because of its success. The program was implemented in St. Louis on a pilot basis in 1989 and was later expanded citywide. Over 3,500 CAT stickers have been affixed to vehicles in St. Louis. Only three vehicles with CAT stickers have been stolen, and all have been recovered!
Operation SafeStreet. SafeStreet is a non-profit agency dedicated to reducing crime and making the City a safer place through the installation of a home security package free of charge to victims of crime and at cost to other City residents. SafeStreet plays a key role in the Enterprise Community crime prevention program among other initiatives.
The Safe Places for Kids Initiative. This initiative is a collaboration among the Wyman Center, the Regional Violence Prevention Initiative, three public housing developments, and two schools on the Near Southside. Its goal is to provide safe after-school activities for youth.
The Family Violence Councils of the St. Louis Region. The Councils facilitate sharing of information and resources across county lines for better law enforcement and administration of justice in family violence crimes.

NEEDS AND CHALLENGES

The nation experienced a drop in juvenile crime during the late 1990s, and most researchers attribute the drop to the decline in the use of crack cocaine. According to a 1997 study on crack abuse in 24 cities, crack abuse in St. Louis began to drop around 1996. According to the study, 44% of arrested juveniles who were tested for the study had crack cocaine in their systems in 1989; that had dropped to 30% by 1996. Although other drugs such as marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine are gaining in popularity, these drugs may cause fewer transactional disputes.

However, in St. Louis, the number of juvenile arrests climbed from 1994 to 1998, partly because law enforcement was targeting lesser offenses as well as major crimes. Police philosophy is to crack down on lesser crimes to discourage greater ones. There is disagreement, though, as to whether the lower juvenile crime rate will continue. There are currently 40 million children nationwide who are under age 10. They will be in their teenage years by 2005 - a 20% increase from 1994. If current trends persist, this large group of teens could create a violent crime problem even larger than the problems of the past decade.

Criminologists and psychiatrists still debate why youth develop violent behavior. The debate continues concerning the effects of genetic and environmental influences.

However, Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and an expert on violence in America, states that there is a significant correlation between children who are abused and violent behavior. Approximately 80% to 90% of the men in jail were victims of child abuse and neglect. The reality of juvenile crime is that a small number of offenders is responsible for most of the trouble. According to 1994 Justice Department statistics, only 6% of juveniles were arrested for an offense. A small number of chronic offenders keep the juvenile courts busy.

A 1996 analysis by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch indicated that although there were 3.45 violent crimes for every 100 residents (compared to .33 for the County), there was a wide range in crime rates from one city neighborhood to another. For example, the violent-crime rate ranged from a high of 24 violent crimes for every hundred residents in the downtown area to a low of 0.29 violent crimes for every 100 residents in the Clifton Heights neighborhood. For property crime rates, the highest was also the downtown area and the lowest was Boulevard Heights. The charts on the following page show the five neighborhoods with the highest violent crime rate and the five areas with the lowest violent crime rates and with the highest and lowest property crime rates.

[Tables III-G-1 through III-G-4, Crime Rates for the City of St. Louis]

The rate of crime in downtown St. Louis needs to be clarified. The number appears high for two reasons - there are relatively few people living downtown, and the number includes incidents such as bar room fights that are not easily controlled. The reality is that downtown St. Louis is a very safe place.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police statistics for 1997 (for complete breakdown see website: www.stlouiscitypolicedept.org/c_stats/CRIME1.HTML) show total crimes for each neighborhood, but do not adjust the rankings for population. Accordingly, the most crimes in 1997 were committed in the Central West End neighborhood (2,321), followed by Dutchtown (2,047), and Tower Grove South (1,892). However, these are also areas of higher population.

The St. Louis City Police Department's Planning and Development Division keeps track of crimes committed in the City. Although the numbers have been decreasing every year since 1993, this is due partly to the fact that the population has been declining as well. Crime against persons (rape, murder, aggravated assault, etc.) however, can occur to anyone who happens to be in the City when the crime takes place, regardless of where they live.

The following table is the annual crime index for various crimes in the City of St. Louis from 1993 - 1998.

[Table III-G-5, Annual Crime Index 1993-1998]

Project Respond/Vision for Children at Risk has put together a report entitled, "The Children of Metropolitan St. Louis". One of the trends it follows is crime in St. Louis City, with an emphasis on victims that are children. The following chart is from that report:

[Table III-G-6, ST. LOUIS CITY CRIME TRENDS]

Using 1998 statistics, the FBI recently released its Uniform Crime Report, comparing the 50 most populous cities in the country for various crime indexes. Using these statistics, St. Louis is ranked number one in total index crime. According to Sherri Overall, from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's Planning and Development Division, it must be taken into account that how the "City" itself is defined is different with each area. Some of the "cities' include more of the total metropolitan area than St. Louis City.

Also, St. Louis is heavily weighted in the crime of larceny. Almost half of the crimes in the City are larceny, which skews the overall ranking as well. The following is how St. Louis ranks in comparison to other cities in the various crime categories:

Table III-G-7, 1998 CRIME IN 50 MOST POPULOUS CITIES]

St. Louis police note that the department is rigorous in reporting crimes like garage thefts (burglary) and automobile license tag thefts (larceny). Other cities are comparatively lax in their crime reporting. Despite the high ranking in total index crime, as mentioned previously, total crime has decreased every year since 1993. Additionally, crime rates for the last several years have been declining as well. All major crime types were down compared to the rates and numbers of five years ago.

These declines in crime - both in St. Louis and the nation - are unprecedented since the Great Depression. According to Scott Decker, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at University of Missouri-St. Louis, crime rates have plummeted due to five factors: (1) stabilization in the crack market; (2) a very strong employment market; (3) a dramatic increase in imprisonment; (4) increased policing efforts; and (5) regression effects.

Decker considers the nature of local drug markets as the most important explanation for the change in crime. It is well known that drugs are associated with crime. In part, the stabilization of the crack market has helped to reduce crime rates in the middle of this decade. In the 80s and early 90s, many affiliated with crack and other drugs used guns for protection. The proliferation of guns resulted in the increase in gun-related crimes, even unrelated to drugs. However, now that the market has become more stable and the sellers and buyers more cautious, the use of guns to settle disputes has lessened.

The strong economy of the past five years undoubtedly has also cut into crime. Unemployment is at an all-time low, therefore allowing those individuals who simply hung out on the streets to find other means of occupying themselves and therefore being less likely to be in an environment to commit crimes. Also, by having regular incomes, they are more apt to have a better sense of worth and feel more positive about their futures.

In the last decade, the United States has seen an unprecedented growth in the prison population. Increased incarceration has helped to bring down homicide rates. Eventually, many of these individuals will be released and again be put into situations that are conducive to crime.

Although the declines in St. Louis crime rates cannot be linked exclusively to local programs because crime has declined in most cities, it is plausible that increased police attention to crime is associated with the declines in St. Louis. Because the declines in St. Louis crime are greater than those for the nation, it is likely that local efforts and conditions have produced those declines.

Finally, according to Scott Decker, "it is difficult to maintain a record pace in anything for very long, whether it is in homicide rates or winning streaks for a sports team. Statisticians call this a "regression effect", as behavior tends to level off after achieving unprecedented high levels. Some of the declines in crime the past few years can be attributed to this leveling off after record high crime rates earlier this decade.

RECOMMENDATIONS

a) Explore uniform training standards for Citizen Academies.

Currently the crime deterrence awareness programs offered to neighborhood residents vary according to the approach favored by district captains. A more uniform curriculum needs to be developed and offered throughout the City in order to help empower citizens. In some cases such training could be offered at sub-stations.

b) Support an aggressive Neighborhood Watch program.

The advent of the Internet, mass faxes, recorded telephone messages and other communications initiatives all allow a re-energized Neighborhood Watch program. New forums need to be developed that can complement the National Night Out and other events. More citizens need to know what to do fight crime. More success stories need to be shared.

c) Continue Block Unit organization and support.

Neighborhood Watch and similar programs work best when the residents of block know and care about each other. The Neighborhood Stabilization Team has a file of around 1000 names of existing and potential city block leaders. They need to be reached through newsletters, e-mail, seminars with basic information. Block leaders need to know about the importance of greeting a new family moving on to the block, of sharing responsibilities among block members, of maintaining and distributing a block phone list, and much more. Those block units that are linked to the overall neighborhood organization seem to work best.

d) Discourage Citizen Patrols.

There are perhaps a dozen citizen based mobile patrols in the City. In general, the police believe that such patrols are not terribly effective. Too often the participants are looking for a big crime, and occasionally they end up more frightened than empowered. Neighborhood residents are more effective when they focus on reporting trash, graffiti, and similar problems to the Citizen Service Bureau, and concentrate on Neighborhood Watch activities.

e) Encourage properly supported Police Sub-stations.

There is wide variation in the success of police sub-stations. Many are simply a way for a small store to benefit from having a policeman present as he or she makes reports and uses the rest room. A few like the Downtown sub-station or the one at 2800 Accomac are closer to the ideal. They are places where anyone can go for refuge, or information about the neighborhood as well as the police. In some Canadian cities, senior citizens and other volunteers staff the sub-station, helping the police file reports, providing information to residents, and serving as a site for neighborhood organizational activity. The police can help by supporting sub-stations, with information and assistance, and perhaps even roll calls. Properly staffed and promoted, a sub-station can help the police to be more effective.

f) Fight for designation of multiple "Weed and Seed" sites in St. Louis.

St. Louis currently has seven target areas that are part of one formally designated site. We need to convince the Department of Justice that St. Louis deserves more support. Weed and Seed offers youth employment programs, drug education for youth (DEFY) camp, police overtime, and much more. It specializes in building partnerships with public, non-profit and private organizations that realize the importance of the program. To go to the next stage of expansion, the program needs a "seed coordinator" and a "seed catalogue" that can increase the level of support from through out the community.

g) Advocate for Victims.

Aid to Victims of Crime and several other organizations provide help after an individual or family has been victimized. In an era of domestic violence, drive by shootings, homicides and all the other forms of violence, this kind of service is important. But it is also important that groups like Aid to Victims of Crime become more pro-active. They need to work with block captains and others to improve our ability to fight crime more effectively.

h) Use lighting, gang way gates and related physical improvements with discretion.

There is so single solution. High intensity street light, dusk to dawn lights and porch floodlights, street barricades, gangway gates between buildings, police bicycle, horse and foot patrols all can play a positive role, but all have certain trade-offs. The challenge is to customize crime deterrence plans to the neighborhood, and to rigorously evaluate what works and what doesn't.

i) Embrace a "problem solving" approach on the part of police.

Community Policing is a philosophy that strives to work with neighborhood residents and businesses to build confidence and address specific problems. An on-going collaborative approach to identify and respond to priority problems must be central to the department's operations.

j) Focus on Police Morale.

Seventy percent of the Police Force has five or less years of experience. Nine or ten policemen retire or leave each month, resulting in continuing staff turnover, and the loss of experience officers with seasoned judgement. Some argue that lifting the residency requirement would make a major difference. More likely, continued attention to the wage disparities with other police forces in the metropolitan areas, continued opportunities for professional training and advancement, and respect from the St. Louis community are more important.

RESOURCES

About 3 million dollars has been forthcoming on a three year cycle from the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant. Roughly a third goes to the Police Department, one third for the School Safety Zone initiative, and the remaining third to various crime prevention programs.

CRIME INFORMATION RESOURCES

Statistics on 96-97 crime rates in St. Louis

Statistics on juvenile crime

Statistics on highest/lowest crime rates in City neighborhoods

St. Louis crime statistics

St. Louis City Programs

www.stlouiscitypolicedept.org

St. Louis City Crime Trends

Editorial by Scott Decker on "Why Crime Is Down. Will It Rise"

Ceasefire Program

St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, November 29, 1998

St. Louis Neighborhood Stabilization Team

http://stlouis.mo.org/citygov/nst/