Crime Prevention: Proactive vs. Reactive and Education

Generally crime attention is identified by the number of cases reported, the higher the calls the higher the attention given. This is reactive. But are we interested in going after the criminal element or preventing the crime?

There are some unique statistics that fuel crime but not often considered:
- Houston population about 2 million people
- Houston ISD about 200 thousand students (10% of population)
- Houston ISD students that fail to graduate about 50%
- Ethnic make up of Houston population, about 50% Latino (all ethnicities) and 30% black
- Houston ISD populaton about 60% Latino and 30% black

In other words, most of Houston's population is made of Latinos and blacks (80%) and we have half of their children not finishing high school

In the article titled Overcoming barriers to high school graduation we find the following statements:

"The opportunity cost to Virginia per high school dropout is roughly $111,586. By allowing nearly 19 percent of Virginia’s students to leave high school without a degree, the Commonwealth stands to lose more than $22 million per year"

"Virginia high school graduates earn roughly $31,336 per year during their first years out of school, while Virginians with less than a high school diploma earn just $25,156 during their first years out of school. "

"...the lifetime income differential between Virginia high school graduates and nongraduates is $266,125. This additional $266,125 in income ...translates into roughly $6,693 in additional state income tax dollars. A portion of this additional income is also spent on housing and goods and services, which means that roughly $2,800 in additional property taxes and $3,428 in additional sales and excises taxes are collected by the Commonwealth from high school graduates compared to non-graduates. In addition, high school graduates contribute $28,616 more in federal taxes than high school dropouts during the course of a lifetime..."

"Graduates are jailed with less frequency than dropouts. The researchers said “incarceration rates…vary by education level” and that nationwide, “more than 50 percent of the prison population is made up of dropouts."

Should be noted the data published by the Houston Chronicle article" Harris County’s burgeoning jail population is expected to swell to 12,600 this spring" and this article published by the John T. Floyd Law Firm "Martin pointed out that it would cost $45 to $55 per day to house these inmates in a comparable Texas facility." What it means is Harris is expected to spend on the average $230 million per year to house prisoners. That is a cost to tax payers of about $18 thousand per year per prisoner.

In contrast as indicated at Houston ISD web site "The Houston Independent School District is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States." and spends less than $8,500 per student. Therefore we spend about $10 thousand more per year to keep people in jail than we do educating the future of this city and the country.

Following some contrasting titles with excerpts:

Increase US Prison Population Has Profound Demographic Consequences
Pettit said well-documented facts - one in 100 Americans is behind bars in 2008, about 2.4 million people currently are incarcerated and nearly 60 percent of young black males who dropped out of high school have served time in jail - don't seem to register with Americans.

The Geography of Punishment: How Huge Sentencing Enhancement Zones Harm Communities, Fail to Protect Children
The law’s poor construction also means that sentencing enhancement zone eligibility has less to do with one’s offense than the location of one’s home. Because they tend to live in urban areas and therefore more often live inside the zones, greater numbers of Blacks, Latinos and the poor are charged with zone violations than Whites who commit the same offenses. Additionally, because the statute dictates a two-year minimum sentence, judges are denied discretion in sentencing and must hand down punishments that are often disproportionate to the crimes committed.

One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008
Three decades of growth in America’s prison population has quietly nudged the nation across a sobering threshold: for the first time, more than one in every 100 adults is now confined in an American jail or prison. According to figures gathered and analyzed by the Pew Public Safety Performance Project, the number of people behind bars in the United States continued to climb in 2007, saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime.

Therefore:

Addressing crime is not a simple solution but funding the criminal system is not the answer either. Our front line to address crime is Houston PD with about 5000 officers according to Wikipedia. However, it appears crime is increasing and Houston residents demand action.

As a traffic engineer I know that traffic violations can be reduced two ways, one is enforcement and the other design. If at a particular street or highway many traffic tickets are given i.e. speeding then it can either be enforced by police presence or the street could be redesigned to prevent high speeds. The first one requires constant policing (costs) but can generate revenues. The second requires infrastructure costs. Applying the same thinking to crime prevention, District H may have the following alternatives to reducing crime:

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: "The proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear of crime and incidence of crime, and to an improvement in quality of life." More information can be found at Wikipedia and CPTED.

CCTV or web video monitoring of neighborhoods: Related information can be found at this article "...many CCTV surveillance systems have been successful at reducing some types of crimes like property crime... (In the UK)numerous case studies paired with crime statistics have been used by Britain’s Home Office to determine the effectiveness of these CCTV systems and to see how well CCTV saves time and money for their police force."

Shift police attention from highways to neighborhoods: As a traffic engineer I know how dangerous it is to park a vehicle on the shoulder of a highway, in particular at locations where there is limited visibility or reduced sight distance (traffic engineering term). I believe that police officers clocking speeding vehicles while parked on highway shoulders are actually endangering the lives of motorist and their lives. Instead TxDOT should place cameras along highways to identify high speed motorists while Houston police officers should focus on patrolling neighborhoods.

Shift hours of operations for police office fronts from day to night hours: There might be a perception about when crimes are committed but office fronts should be open during the times when most crimes are committed. Lets remember the adage "crime never sleeps."

However, we have got to remember that crime is fueled by the number of youth who do not graduate from high school. Long term solutions to crime is not on policing but education of our youth.

Personally, I would love to see a District H that is more focused on our quality of life and quality of education. I would love for our police officers go to work with the peace of mind that crime prevention is part of our culture and education process vs. an urban guerrilla war that puts at risk their lives on the line of duty.