Study: Skid Row crackdown only effective in short term
BY RICK ORLOV
LA Daily News, Staff Writer
09/24/2007
A year after the LAPD flooded Skid Row with dozens of officers to crack down on crime, a study has found that crime in the area plunged 40 percent but the city has failed to develop any long-term solutions.
The UCLA study also found higher crime in communities adjacent to the nearly one-square-mile Skid Row area, as well as an increase in the number of transients in other parts of the city.
It also found that monthly arrests averaged more than 750, with more than half minor drug offenses. Of the 1,000 citations issued month, the majority were for such infractions as loitering and jaywalking.
"There are a high number of citations being issued, but people can't afford to pay the fines and are sent to jail," said Gary Blasi, a law professor who conducted the months-long study with his students.
"And even though it gets them out of Skid Row for the short term, they will come back and, because of their criminal record, they aren't eligible for housing or welfare.
"We don't see the other support programs that are needed to deal with the problem of homelessness. Other cities are developing coordinated policies to get people off the streets that we don't see here."
Launched a year ago this week, the Safer Cities Initiative was designed to tackle Los Angeles' estimated 40,000 homeless, many of them downtown, with 50 extra officers on Skid Row and additional services.
While officials and business leaders who work in and around the area have hailed it as a renaissance, those who live on the streets say it has led to the criminalization of the homeless.
Read the full article over here.
The LA TImes has a similiar article about this study, read the full article over here.
LA Daily News, Staff Writer
09/24/2007
A year after the LAPD flooded Skid Row with dozens of officers to crack down on crime, a study has found that crime in the area plunged 40 percent but the city has failed to develop any long-term solutions.
The UCLA study also found higher crime in communities adjacent to the nearly one-square-mile Skid Row area, as well as an increase in the number of transients in other parts of the city.
It also found that monthly arrests averaged more than 750, with more than half minor drug offenses. Of the 1,000 citations issued month, the majority were for such infractions as loitering and jaywalking.
"There are a high number of citations being issued, but people can't afford to pay the fines and are sent to jail," said Gary Blasi, a law professor who conducted the months-long study with his students.
"And even though it gets them out of Skid Row for the short term, they will come back and, because of their criminal record, they aren't eligible for housing or welfare.
"We don't see the other support programs that are needed to deal with the problem of homelessness. Other cities are developing coordinated policies to get people off the streets that we don't see here."
Launched a year ago this week, the Safer Cities Initiative was designed to tackle Los Angeles' estimated 40,000 homeless, many of them downtown, with 50 extra officers on Skid Row and additional services.
While officials and business leaders who work in and around the area have hailed it as a renaissance, those who live on the streets say it has led to the criminalization of the homeless.
Read the full article over here.
The LA TImes has a similiar article about this study, read the full article over here.
posted by bowen at 6:04 PM
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