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Vandalism Camera-Crime Prevention Tool

Vandalism Camera-Crime Prevention Tool

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Cleaning up crimes can only go on so long. Eventually, part of the cities’ crime enforcement operations need to lead to crime prevention methods. According to a report “Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising” by the NCJRS, Crime prevention needs to be implemented in three areas: community environments, families, and schools.

Because of the strictness of laws and constitutional rights in the US, city prevention in these three areas seem to have become more passive in nature. Cities create programs and ways to educate people to prevent crime in the future. These methods are good, but they do not have immediate effects in stopping crime.

On the scene, arrests and extra patrol officers seem to be effective in cases of high level crime that results in immediate effects. However, crimes of a less extreme nature, such as: property crimes, theft,  burglary, trespass, and criminal mischief, seem to go unnoticed. Police departments use curfews, street lighting, neighborhood watches, vandalism cameras, and remote surveillance systems in order to stop crimes of such nature. Are these methods effective?

According to California Bureau Research, California State Library, titled “Public Video Surveillance: Is It An Effective Crime Prevention Tool” By Marcus Nieto, there is not enough evidence. However, according to Tony Pearsall, the Executive Director of Fighting Back Partnership, “It’s preventative — it’s an obvious visible prevention that’s having more of an impact than I ever thought it would have.”  Therefore, due to the high amount of crime and low amount of human resources, tools like remote surveillance systems and vandalism cameras seem to be an alternate option that needs to be explored as an effective preventative method to stop crime.

Broken Window Theory

What is the Broken Window Theory?

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The “Broken Window Theory” is the idea that if a community prevents smaller crimes like vandalism and graffiti it will improve the overall quality of life for the whole community, which will prevent larger crimes from occurring. Targeting low level crimes to prevent larger crimes. This theory was first introduced by social scientists,  James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling , in a 1982 article in The Atlantic.

The theory is that if one allows a few broken windows to go unrepaired in abandoned building, then more will eventually be broken. More broken windows could lead to graffiti and people illegally inhabiting the building, and soon the building becomes a center of illegal activity like drug deals, which leads to worse criminal activity. Essentially if a community prevents or repairs the petty crimes, like graffiti and vandalism, before they become a bigger issue, then that will improve the overall crime rate in the community.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NYPD Commissioner William Bratton incorporated this theory into their crime prevention methods. Bratton is currently the NYPD Commissioner under Bill De Blasio, and he has implemented the theory as an integral part of the city’s law enforcement. NYPD according to NBC News uses a “Stop-and-frisk” method and relies on the “Broken Window Theory”. New York City uses the theory to deal with issues like graffiti, vandalism, and littering. When issues arise like graffiti in the subways, the city cleans it up, so the overall crime does not increase.

NYPD under Bratton has been a very effective police force, most likely because of their key principle of using the “Broken Window Theory”.   This theory addresses crime prevention so larger crimes do not arise. The “broken window” theory is a method that should be used by police enforcement throughout the country.