Case Study: Community Development that Fights Crime
(Adapted from Community development that fights crime by Elizabeth Duffrin, and Passion is very
important by Patrick T. Reardon, LISC Institute for Comprehensive Community Development.)
Dudley Square in the Roxbury neighborhood
Nuestra CDC
A successful crime requires, at minimum, three things: an offender, a victim and a suitable location.
Residents in high-crime neighborhoods often complain that the police aren’t doing enough. But by
themselves, the police can only affect one point on the “crime triangle,” and that’s the offender,
explains Julia Ryan, program director of the LISC Community Safety Initiative (CSI). Comprehensive
community development, on the other hand, can impact all
three.
That is why in Roxbury, one of Boston’s roughest
neighborhoods,
Nuestra Comunidad
Development
Corporation (Nuestra CDC) is making public safety an
integrated and effective part of a local comprehensive
community initiative.
Here are some of the lessons they have learned:
Listen, recruit leaders and build consensus
Roxbury is one of three Boston communities selected for a
new comprehensive community development initiative led
by the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) in Boston.
Bob Van Meter, executive director of Boston LISC, describes
the importance of deep and abiding resident engagement.
"At the core of our theory of change is that public
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In the Roxbury, nearly a quarter
of the residents live below the
poverty line. They also experience
high rates of childhood diabetes,
low birth weight, heart disease
and teen pregnancy. Half of the
residents are African-American,
and 21 percent are Hispanic. In
Boston, African-Americans earn a
median income of $35, 686, or
just 69 percent of the white
median income of $51,688. For
Latinos, it's $30,665.
participation in decisions that affect communities is essential for achieving better communities," Van
Meter explains.
Boosting that participation --- which also includes recruiting a wider array of leaders --- requires the
ability to pay close attention to what people say. But recruiting new leaders and greater resident
participation is only part of the task. Residents from every corner of the community then need to come
together and work together to develop a common vision for improving the quality of life in the
neighborhood based on what they see as priorities. Not what funders see as the top needs, not what
government officials see as the top needs.
These priorities and the strategies to address them are then spelled out in a detailed revitalization plan,
specifying who will do what and when those efforts will be done.
It becomes, through the commitment of individuals and organizations, a community contract.
Make friends in blue
Building good relationships with the police became the foundation for much of the work that followed.
At first glance, community developers don’t seem to have much in common with the police, said David
Price, executive director of Nuestra CDC. “But crime tends to happen in specific places and repeats
itself," he noted, "and community development organizations are in the business of changing places.”
In Roxbury, police officers became powerful allies in pushing city officials to pay attention to the
neighborhood, in pressuring negligent property owners to sell, and in convincing neighbors that it was
safe to report crime.
Price recommends reaching out not only to the beat cops in your neighborhood but also to the senior
officers, particularly the district captain. The more power you have on your side, the more leverage you
have to get things done.
Hone your crime-fighting skills
Trainings for residents can be a great way to build relationships among neighbors and the local police
while also learning new strategies to prevent crime.
Price organized trainings on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED). Through CPTED,
community leaders and police worked together on identifying factors such as poor lighting or vacant
buildings that make certain locations attractive for criminals.
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Roxbury used the training to reduce prostitution along its main commercial corridor and to target
abandoned properties where multiple crimes were occurring.
"Trainings like the CPTED workshop have helped to build the group and keep the momentum going,"
Price said.
Make your case
Once you've documented what needs fixing, it's time to make your case to the powers-that-be. The
Roxbury team—which included neighborhood nonprofits, activists and police officers—got a quick
response from the city to its anti-prostitution effort. Daryl Smith, deputy commissioner of the Boston
Inspectional Service Department, was so impressed by the collaboration he decided to join in.
Now every Wednesday, Smith leads the other partners on a walking tour of one stretch of the
commercial boulevard, talks to neighbors, and immediately takes action on any item that comes to his
attention. "He [will] call the Public Works Department on his cell phone to come and trim a tree to
improve street lighting and make a building safer,” Price reported.
Build your team and communicate across lines
Fighting crime isn’t just about changing the environment, the people in the neighborhood need to
change, too. Renovations alone won’t deter crime-- neighbors must be willing to keep a close watch
and essentially become the community’s stewards.
Clear communication among residents, the police and community developers can make everyone's
crime-fighting efforts more effective. In Roxbury, Nuestra organized a neighborhood watch between
Dacia and Howard streets, a target area with the highest rates of crime and foreclosure in the area.
While the city had already mapped the overlap between crime incidents and foreclosures in the target
area, there were so many hotspots that police or the development corporation couldn’t determine
where exactly to focus.
But residents could say which hotspots caused the most problems from their point of view. “By
concentrating on those [specific spots] we had the biggest improvement in the quality of life and the
safety climate,” Price said.
Neighborhood watches in Roxbury also became forums for neighbors to get to know and trust the police
officers who regularly attended.
A big issue for the police was how few residents were willing to call 911 because they feared retaliation
from gang members. At the meetings, the police were able to reassure them.
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"We don’t trace the calls, we don’t show up at your house for more information or call [in your report]
on the police radio," explained Kenneth Grubbs, a community services officer for the Boston Police
Department.
Target problem properties
Cracking down on your neighborhood's most problematic properties can be an effective way to root out
crime. After neighbors helped identify the worst crack houses between Dacia and Howard streets,
Nuestra bought two, rehabbed them and sold them to responsible owners.
Nuestra CDC
An open air drug market in a garage on Balfour Street
got shut down after Nuestra and its partners pushed
the city to cite the building owners. "Finally, they got
fined enough that they put on plywood and boarded
it up," Price said.
Nuestra CDC
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Throw a party
Neighborhood events and festivals organized by residents and the police are another way to bridge the
divide and build relationships. In Roxbury, the police have helped sponsor regular events as a way to
build relationships with youth before they get in trouble. Events included a peace walk, barbeques, and
street cleaning competition.
The hard work has paid off. Today, the City of Boston is working with Roxbury residents to crack down
on prostitution like never before. And residents are far more willing to report crime today than they had
been previously.
Nuestra CDC
Sources:
Community development that fights crime by Elizabeth Duffrin, LISC Institute for Comprehensive
Community Development, April 9, 2012, http://www.instituteccd.org/news/3756
Passion is very important by Patrick T. Reardon, LISC Institute for Comprehensive Community
Development, January 10, 2011, http://www.instituteccd.org/news/1815
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Who are/were/should be:
a) the stakeholders?
b) the action step collaborators / partners?
2. What are the challenges being addressed?
3. Is/was there a motivating event/factor for the collaboration?
4. What strategies were/are/could be used to:
a) Bring the collaborators/partners to the table?
b) Keep the collaborators/partners at the table?
c) Forge a common vision?
d) Develop a holistic and integrated plan?
e) Set up an implementation & accountability plan?
f) Ensure the effort is/was sustainable?
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