8/19/2009

Shaming criminals to stop committing crime

Something that looks like it works:

PEORIA, Ill. -- This industrial city, hard hit by the recession, has found a new, low-budget way to fight crime: Park an unmanned, former Brink's truck bristling with video cameras in front of the dwellings of troublemakers.

Police here call it the Armadillo. They say it has restored quiet to some formerly rowdy streets. Neighbors' calls for help have dropped sharply. About half of the truck's targets have fled the neighborhood.

"The truck is meant to be obnoxious and to cause shame," says Peoria Police Chief Steven Settingsgaard.

The Armadillo has helped alleviate problems like drug dealing that can make neighborhoods unlivable.

Police got a call at 2:30 one morning from Mary Smith, a 58-year-old computer operator at a Butternut Bread Bakery. Fighting back tears, she asked for relief from her neighbors' incessant yelling.

She and her husband, Terry, 61, a Butternut baker, have lived in their home on North Wisconsin Avenue for 30 years, and have seen the neighborhood fall into drug trafficking. The police suggested using the Armadillo.

That weekend, the truck pulled up to the offending neighbor's house. A police officer knocked on the door and told the residents a nuisance report had been filed. Within 24 hours, the Smiths say, the house was quiet. The occupants moved out soon thereafter. . . .

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2 Comments:

Blogger The Duck said...

They don't stop they just move somewhere else & start up again

8/19/2009 2:38 PM  
Blogger Paul Gordon said...

They don't stop they just move somewhere else & start up again.

Ok. Fine! I'll bet quite a few will settle for that.

A long time ago, here in Houston, Mayor Bob Lanier greatly increased police presence at a number of trouble spots, and succeeded in quieting them down.

So help me, some of his opponents argued that he didn't solve the problem; he just moved it somewhere else.

Well, DUH!!!

That's like arguing that if you you protect your car, you don't stop car theft; they'll just steal from someone else.

If you can't change someone's behavior, making them go somewhere the hell else sounds fine to me.

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8/19/2009 8:00 PM  

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