NCJ Number
154012
Journal
New York Dated: (March 13, 1995) Pages: 43-48
Date Published
1995
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This report describes how 36,000 citizens in New York City are operating citizen patrols that use legal and nonviolent methods to thwart burglaries and assaults, eliminate prostitutes from their neighborhoods, stop juvenile gangs from committing vandalism, and closing down drug trafficking locations.
Abstract
The activists come from all socioeconomic, ethnic, national, and religious group in the city. Anecdotal reports and logic indicates that these patrols have been a factor in the decline in the crime rate in the last 2 years. The efforts include civilian crime patrols, private security guards, and civil action. Civilian patrols focus on identifying suspects and reporting by walkie-talkie back to volunteers at a base. They maintain cooperative relationships with the police, but have no police powers. Private security guards can be an effective alternative to a civilian patrol; a guard working only at peak-crime periods may be available in a radio-patrol vehicle for as little as $25,000 per year. The most dramatic results in citizen crime control efforts have been produced by citizens organized to report drug dealing. Civil lawsuits to evict drug dealers have also been effective in drug law enforcement efforts. Citizens who have become involved in these efforts report that it has reduced their fear, helped them get to know their neighborhoods, and feel positively about their neighborhoods. Photographs