Crime Prevention Conduct: Implementation of Strategies

Upon initial observation, the Lighthouse Parking Lot is what you would expect from your typical parking lot: open, some street lighting, and in close proximity to nearby attractions. The amount of theft crimes occur here may be due to the fact that it is a central location for the attractions in Canal Park and that it holds a lot of unattended property (vehicles potentially filled with hot products). Hot products can be everyday items that are highly targeted by thieves and can be described as being: concealable, removable, available, valuable, enjoyable, and disposable” (Lab, 2016, p. 236). The lighting that covers the parking lot comes from the street lights covering the street and has no cameras besides at the pay station located at the corner of the parking lot. One of the ways to improve crime prevention at this location would be to place more cameras and post signs indicating that the parking lot is under surveillance. To my surprise when I was observing this area, there were no visible cameras around or in the parking lot and at night, the lot is dimly lit by one lamp placed in the center of the lot and from what light from the street lights reach it. Ratcliffe (2006) talked about the different CCTV and the best way to utilize them to most effectively prevent crime, however, for CCTV crime prevention to be most effective “two elements must exist (1) the offender must be aware of the cameras’ presence and (2) the offender must believe the cameras present enough risk to capture to negate the rewards of the intended crime” (Ratcliffe, 2006). Piza and colleagues (2019) conducted research on the effects of CCTV on prevention of crime by measuring crime-level changes before and after CCTV installations. The addition of a CCTV to the parking lot in Canal Park could be a low-maintenance solution to the theft happening. There are also different camera variations such as motion sensors that would activate the camera (save energy) or infrared lighting to enhance quality during night (Ratcliffe, 2006). Piza and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 76 studies with followup periods ranging from two to sixty months; the study results showed a “modest but significant crime prevention effect” where crime was decreased by 37% in car parks and had a reduction effect on vehicle and property crime by 14% (Piza, Welsh, Farrington, & Thomas, 2019). Some possible limitations that the implementation of CCTV could have are displacement, increased suspicion or fear of crime, and increased crime reporting (Ratcliffe, 2006).

Little Angie’s has a well lit outerior and interior. It is also a very popular place during the warmer seasons (especially during the tourist season) with its outdoor seating. The inside layout of Little Angie’s is set up so that there is a counter with an employee that can watch the entrance. The bar is also situated near the entrance so when there is no “greeting” employee at the counter, the bartenders are still able to keep an eye on the door. There is also only one customer entrance into Little Angie’s. Like the Lighthouse Parking Lot, there were no cameras around the exterior of Little Angie’s, which was surprising. Little Angie’s is also close enough to other bars such as Grandma’s and Sports Garden to “piggy-back” off of the police presence placed in this area at 2A.M. when all the establishments are closing; a lot of the time there will be one police car placed near the intersection where Little Angie’s is). Research done by Burgason and colleagues on controlling violence near the late-night establishments in Little Rock by “employing a minimum of two law enforcement officers in and around the establishment, showed to be an effective strategy to alter the guardianship and reduced the relative risk of crime in close proximity to the establishments” (Burgason, Drawve, Brown, & Eassey, 2017). Based off this, the simple movement of previous mention police car that sits outside of Grandma’s Sports Garden, to the corner of Little Angie’s would help in reducing crime.

The Speedway on 4th and 6th has a lot of lighting along the building’s walls, in the overhang of the gas pumps, and inside the store. The Speedway also has multiple cameras on the exterior and interior as well as a cashier station that can observe the store and the outside gas pumps. Aesthetically speaking, the Speedway does not look run down and its connected establishment, the Co-Op, adds to its appearance as a legitimate establishment. There is a small alcove (two to three feet wide) with a tall fence over, possibly placed to prevent individuals from utilizing that spot. The Speedway has been a central location for crime and related activity away from 1st Street where a majority of Duluth crime is condensed around. This particular establishment has had nine thefts within the past month and vandalism, theft, disorderly conduct, DUI, and drug incidents have been reported around the Speedway over the past year (roughly 36 reports in the last year); the majority of crime that takes place was theft and disorderly conduct as the next most occuring. The Speedway has also been recorded as the location of a heroin drug deal where two individuals have been charged with aiding and abetting third-degree murder in the overdose death of a man on December 14, 2018 (Bergstrom, 2019). During observations of the day time, there seems to be, a majority of the time, individuals loitering around the establishment. I even observed a man sleeping under the awning of the side of the building during the middle of the day.

Another observation made was a skirmish between three individuals, one was a middle aged woman hitting aggressively a middle aged man while a third middle aged woman was attempting to pull the aggravator away from the man. Every so often, there will be police cars that park in the parking lots across the street from the Speedway, each of these parking lots also contain a 911 emergency call station. Normally the police cars can be spotted in these parking lots when there has been a disturbance but has already broken up by the time the police arrive. A possible theory of the Speedway being a crime attractor may be due in part to it being the closest convenience type store in the area which is surrounded by residential buildings and it is within walking distance of the hospital. It is also located on one of the more frequently utilized roads which has multiple different bus routes running along. This makes it a local meet up location for some and other an establishment that produces a high fear of crime (many individuals will avoid the Speedway during evenings). One theory of crime that provides a reason to why so much happens at the Speedway is the Social Disorganization Theory (SDT). SDT is one of the “best supported ecological theories developed to explain crime at the neighbourhood level” (Louderback & Roy, 2018). The Speedway could be considered a micro geographic hot spot due to the social structural variables that it contains such as people who frequent the area and know eachothers’ routines, accepted behaviors and norms at the location, and patterns of behavior (Weisburd, Groff, & Yang, 2014).

Over all, Little Angie’s and the Speedway have the most crime prevention methods in place: cameras, lighting, and presence of employees to discourage criminal activity. Analysis of the occurrence of reported crimes in these areas show that they vary throughout the day but occur slightly more during the early evening between 4PM to 7PM. Based off of the time of most crime happening, the Speedway and Little Angie’s (primarily the Speedway) could benefit from the addition of an employee during these time periods; a counter criticism of added security or additional staff to appear to be too costly for business owners, is that added staff would only be needed for a small number of hours a few days a week, thus the cost for employing someone would not be as high as originally thought and would aid in reducing crime. The best way to reduce crime at these two areas would be hot spot policing which I will describe next. Hot spots can be described as “small places in which the occurrence of crime is so frequent that it is highly predictable” (Lab, 2016, p. 208). Recognizing areas as hot spots has lead to the strategy of hot spot policing which is the “specific efforts by police to address crime convergence in hot spots… it also requires analysis of the locale and the generation of interactions appropriate for the problem” (Lab 2016, p. 252).

Braga and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of hot spot policing in 65 studies with 78 hot spot policing interventions and found that hot spot policing is an effective tool to crime prevention and that focused police intervention did not have spatial displacement of crime but rather there was a diffusion of benefits of crime control to the surrounding areas (Braga, Turchan, Papachristos, & Hureau, 2019). Another study conducted by Kochel and Weisburd looked at the effects hot spot policing had on collective efficacy on 71 hot spots where they “compared collaborative problem solving versus a direct patrol approach versus standard policing practices” (Kochel & Weisburd, 2019). The results they found from their field trials were that over time, police presence promoted a modest improvement to collective efficacy (Kochel & Weisburd, 2019). Another study conducted by Kochel and Weisburd (2017) on the impact of the community receiving the hot spot policing to confirm or deny the criticism it receives for “negatively impacting the citizens evaluations of police legitimacy and leading to heightened perceptions of police abuse,” showed that there was “no long term harm to public opinion” (Kochel & Weisburd, 2017). If implemented properly, I think that hot spot policing could be the best crime prevention strategy utilized to reduce the amount of crime that occurs at the Speedway. The research on hot spot policing shows that “hot spot policing is effective at reducing crime” (Lab, 2016, p. 253). Another possible crime prevention strategy for the Speedway is one that is less effective than hot spot policing but would have an effect on reducing the fear of crime in the area and that would be to improve the landscape around the Speedway to promote a greater sense of ownership. This approach would fall under the image aspect of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Image is “the outward appearance of an area or property as cared for by those who belong in the area… a neighborhood having the appearance that it is not isolated and is cared for, and that residents will take action” (Lab, 2016, p. 57, 59). The surrounding neighborhood to the Speedway is run down, except for the Co-Op which is the most up kept building in the area. On the other side of 4th Street is a closed down automobile shop that is boarded up and has an unkempt parking lot. On the other side of 6th Avenue are parking lots with old and rundown buildings on the other side that give the area a “dark” feel. If the areas around the Speedway could be cleaned up and repurposed.

There are some limitations that would need to be worked around when implementing crime prevention strategies. If more CCTV were installed at Little Angie’s exterior, there is minimal vegetation around the establishment but that vegetation could pose a potential interference with video surveillance depending on where they would be placed. Some prevention methods include providing additional security personnel to locations, this would not be a conducive approach for the Lighthouse Parking Lot; because the lot is small in size, it is not typical to have someone watch over the vehicles and the cost to fund a security guard would not be worth the small amount of crime that could be prevented through the installation of a visible CCTV. The Speedway, though it could benefit from an improvement to the surrounding area’s image, it is improbable for the city to fund the parking lots around the Speedway to be remodeled especially when Duluth has limited parking space as is.

Conclusion

Further observation of these locations would need to be conducted to further pinpoint the times where the most deviant activity occurs to implement crime prevention efforts more effectively (such as the addition of another employee or police presence stationed nearby or routinely driving by). It would be more convenient to do a further analysis of all the reported criminal activity that occurred at these locations if it were possible to see the reports. With this information, we could further develop crime prevention plans based off of the obtained information, such as identifying hot objects that are the targets of the thefts. Additional measures such as CCTV, lighting, security personnel, or employees would all require additional expenses such as the purchasing, instalment, maintaining, and equipment associated. Considerations such as solar panels and motion sensored lighting/CCTV, however, could be utilized to reduce electrical and environmental impacts. Overall, these locations would benefit from the utilization of crime prevention techniques from installation of CCTV, hot spot policing, increased police presence, additional employees, or improvement to landscape. The Speedway on 4th Street and 6th Avenue would benefit greatly from the utilization of hot spot policing due to the amount, varying type, and frequency of reported crimes that happen there.