Chicago is using street ambassadors to reduce crime.
Via Baltimore Sun:
A top adviser to Baltimore’s mayor on Thursday discussed sweeping plans to reduce violent crime in the city, speaking to business leaders who expressed continued concerns about the safety of their employees.
“You can’t go outside of this office at 3 p.m. It’s very, very scary. My employees will not leave the office,” said Rick Faby, a branch manager and senior vice president of investments at Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. on Calvert Street downtown. He said his employees won’t leave the office for a delivery or other concerns, despite security guards, which makes him question keeping in his office downtown.
“I have a choice. Am I going to take the lease and double the size of my office? Or, I can open an office in Hunt Valley and Columbia and not have the crime and not have the worries,” he said.
Faby was among the dozens of business leaders who attended a presentation given by Drew Vetter, the director of the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice, who spoke about the city’s plans to reduce crime and improve public safety Thursday morning. Vetter’s presentation is part of a monthly speaker series hosted by the Greater Baltimore Committee, a public-private partnership of business and civic leaders focused on economic growth, job creation and quality of life.
Vetter began his presentation saying that “violence concentrates in certain hot spots throughout the city.”
To reduce violence in the city, “we have to be selective, and narrowly focused,” balanced in punishment and strategies, and be “legitimate” by building trust with residents, Vetter said, quoting a researcher from Harvard University who gave a presentation about in Baltimore last year on crime reduction.
Vetter described the recent initiatives the mayor’s office has promoted to decrease violence, including the Violence Reduction Initiative that targets specific problem areas with an increased police presence, and other agencies to address issues, such as vacant houses, lighting and trash. Vetter also spoke about improvements in technology for the police department, including additional CitiWatch cameras and a new ShotSpotter system to detect gun discharges, and new laptops in police vehicles.
Vetter said the city is seeking funding from the state to increase the number of Safe Streets sites, which have ex-offenders help resolve neighborhood disputes that might otherwise lead to violence, and Vetter spoke of the Roca program, which connects high-risk young adults to jobs and aims to keep them out of jail, among other initiatives.