NCJ Number
212021
Date Published
July 2005
Length
67 pages
Annotation
This report presents an evaluation of the Weed and Seed program in the West Center City area of Wilmington, DE during the period 2001 through 2004.
Abstract
Operation Weed and Seed is a federally funded program that works toward developing local strategies to prevent and reduce violent crime, illicit drugs, and gang activity in high-crime neighborhoods. Weed and Seed programs are composed of four elements: law enforcement; community-oriented policing; prevention, intervention, and treatment; and neighborhood restoration. Wilmington’s current Weed and Seed neighborhood, West Center City, has been an officially recognized Weed and Seed site since 1992 and has consistently ranked among the city’s top five neighborhoods for illicit drug activity, poverty, unemployment, and low homeownership rates. Citizens living in this neighborhood rated their most serious problems as juvenile delinquency, public drinking, traffic violations, and loitering. After describing the Operation Weed and Seed program in Wilmington from 1992 through 2000, the report turns to an evaluation of the program during the period 2001 through 2004. Highlights of the program include an August 2002 Weed and Seed drug enforcement effort that culminated in a large-scale drug sweep in the West Center City neighborhood, resulting in 15 arrests. Several new public safety initiatives were coordinated with the Wilmington Police Department in the spring of 2003 and “Operation Disarm” was launched in 2001 as a Federal initiative to reduce firearm violence by aggressively enforcing firearm laws. Wilmington Index crime statistics indicate an increase in drug arrests in the West Center City neighborhood during 2003, an indication of the increased police attention to the neighborhood. However, since 1995, the number of violent crime arrest in the West Center City area has remained relatively stable. Year-by-year statistical analyses of drug and violent crimes in the city are offered. Tables