Program Goals
The main goal of the Safer Cities Initiative (SCI) was to reduce crime in the Los Angeles, Calif., area known as “Skid Row,” an area with a large homeless population concentrated in a densely packed area of economic disadvantage. The section had high rates of crime and victimization, including open-air drug markets, prostitution, theft, robbery gangs, and vandalism. As an attempt to combat rising levels of crime and improve public order in the Skid Row area, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) implemented the SCI as a 68-week program starting in 2005.
Target Population
The Skid Row area was targeted by the SCI based on the high-risk characteristics of the area’s inhabitants. At the time the SCI was implemented, the area had a 2:1 ratio of males to females. At least one third had substance abuse problems, one fourth were mentally ill, and one fifth had disabilities. Approximately half of the homeless population had a high school education, less than one fifth were employed, and at least one fifth of the population consisted of homeless families. A large fraction of the Los Angeles County homeless population was located in Skid Row, and crime among the homeless was a serious issue in the area.
Program Activities/Key Personnel
The first law enforcement effort to address Skid Row began with a pilot program conducted by the LAPD in September 2005. Known as the “Main Street Pilot Project,” it sought to reduce the density of homeless encampments using fines and citations. After a successful implementation of the pilot program, the full-scale version of the SCI was launched on Sept. 17, 2006. Fifty full-time officers were stationed to the streets of downtown Los Angeles, where they broke up homeless encampments, issued citations, and made arrests for various offenses. Specifically, encampments along South Main Street between Fourth and Seventh Streets, the Historic Core, were proclaimed a public health nuisance, and sanctions were mandated by a Los Angeles City statute. In conjunction with this effort, portable toilets were removed from the area to deter homeless people from loitering. The LAPD also targeted crimes, such as public intoxication, drug use, and prostitution, all of which were believed to make the area more inviting to criminals.
In addition, four to five officers were placed on foot patrol in the Historic Core area to concentrate exclusively on handling nuisance offenses and maintaining order. One of the LAPD’s mobile command stations was placed near Skid Row to facilitate law enforcement efforts. Undercover vice teams were placed in areas believed to be open-air drug markets and hotbeds of prostitution. Lastly, a special undercover squad concentrated on local robberies.
Program Theory
SCI was based on the “broken windows” theory of crime, which posits a connection between neighborhood disorder and serious crime. The premise of this theory is that public order offenses signal that neighborhood residents either do not care to maintain their neighborhood or do not have the resources to do so. Thus if a window is broken and left unrepaired in a neighborhood, it is a sign that no one cares about the neighborhood enough to repair it. Theoretically, then, if public order offenses are left unchecked, the social order in the neighborhood will decline and lead to an increase in serious criminal behavior (Berk and MacDonald 2010).
