The Beacon - a light in Madison's community safety story

Downtown Madison, Wisconsin - a beautiful city surrounded by lakes.
Site of the 2025 Problem-Oriented Policing conference

 by Greg Saville

In every city, there are places that test the limits of our problem-solving. In Madison, Wisconsin, one of those places in the past was The Beacon, a “daytime drop-in shelter and resource center operated by Catholic Charities”. It provides daily services to more than 200 men, women, and children experiencing homelessness, with the goal of supporting their transition toward stability and greater well-being.

Last week, following our SafeGrowth/CPTED presentation at the annual Problem-Oriented Policing Conference, I had the honor to tour through The Beacon with some SafeGrowth students in a recent course, along with my long-time colleague, retired RCMP Sgt. John Lyons, and meet the new center manager, Chris Watson and program director, Nici Hawkins. 

 

Inside the Beacon property - access control to ensure safety and comfort
for those experiencing homelessness

What we saw was more than a resource center. It was the outcome of a collaborative journey — one that began in a SafeGrowth training class and has since grown into a community success story.  

FROM TRAINING TO REAL-WORLD RESULTS

Last year, when we first introduced SafeGrowth and CPTED in Madison, we used case studies from other cities to show what happens when residents, police, and community partners design solutions together. Class participants used those case studies to form teams and select a Madison project to work on over a few months.

Garden and vegetable/flower growing area inside the Beacon 

One of the SafeGrowth teams picked The Beacon as their project site, knowing the center was experiencing serious challenges: high calls for service, frayed staff–police relationships, and public disorder spilling into the streets. Prior attempts to collaborate had been less than successful and the problems were not improving.

The SafeGrowth team didn’t drop in a pre-packaged answer, like simple CPTED checklists. They started with site visits, interviews, and safety audits. They listened to Beacon staff and clients and eventually, they partnered with them. They mapped the problems: loitering and drug dealing at the rear entrance, unsafe outdoor areas, poor access control, and strained police–staff relationships

Children's safe play area for families suffering homelessness

Common sitting area, lockers for storing property and restrooms

EARLY BREAKTHROUGHS 

Several strategies emerged quickly:

• Closing the rear entrance and welcoming everyone through the front doors for proper check-in, reducing anonymity and disorder.
• Parking changes on the adjacent block to disrupt drug dealing and loitering.
• Weekly walkthroughs and de-escalation training for Beacon staff, helping rebuild trust with police

What made the difference was not just the fixes, but the teamwork: police, Beacon staff, neighbors, and city officials working side by side in a SafeGrowth team. When the Beacon staff attended presentations at the conclusion of the SafeGrowth training, they were able to develop a new kind of partnership that still exists – indeed, it has expanded.

Computer facilities helping people find jobs, resources, and skills training

Laundry facilities along with many social services available

RESULTS THAT MATTER 

The results were dramatic. After SafeGrowth strategies were implemented in August 2024, calls for service dropped by nearly 40% the following year. This means that, not only were those in and around The Beacon safer in their daily lives, but there were financial savings in police resources. 

For Beacon staff and clients, the changes meant safer spaces, clearer boundaries, and stronger trust with the officers who walked their halls. And now, The Beacon is taking further steps: introducing some redesigns to the property, adding staff roles, upgrading security, coordinating with new outreach teams, and even launching volunteer cleanup programs.

Beacon manager Chris Watson describing the many resources and
services to help people transition off the street 

LIGHTING THE PATH FORWARD 

The Beacon’s success isn’t the end of the story. It’s a work in progress — a living example of how SafeGrowth works when ideas move from paper to practice. The center has been providing services for a long time and the SafeGrowth project helped support that tremendous work by establishing partnerships with police and ensuring safety in and around the property. They are still refining operations and building partnerships. But the transformation so far shows the power of collaborative problem-solving.

Our visit to the Beacon, coincided with the annual problem-oriented policing conference, honoring the concept founded by University of Wisconsin/Madison Professor Herman Goldstein. In a time when cities around the world struggle to confront homelessness, this example shines a light on how it can become a collaborative strategy.

As Goldstein warned decades ago, “police have been particularly susceptible to the ‘means over ends’ syndrome” — focusing more on internal systems than on whether they actually reduce harm. 

Our SafeGrowth presentation took place at the 2025 POP conference, just down the street from The Beacon

What the Madison SafeGrowth team showed at The Beacon is that when community, police, and service providers shift focus together on outcomes, real change happens.

A beacon is not the destination. It’s the light that guides the way. In Madison, thanks to the police department, the SafeGrowth team, along with Beacon staff, and their partners, that light is shining a little brighter.

Cutting crime with knowledge and power - A doorway to effective policing

 

The 2025 Problem-Oriented Policing Conference returns 

to Madison, Wisconsin

By Gregory Saville

A few decades ago, television entered what critics call the Second Golden Age. Gone were the tidy cop shows of the 1970s. In their place came gritty realism. Among them was NYPD Blue, where Detective Andy Sipowicz embodied the flawed but dedicated street cop.

In one memorable episode, Sipowicz points to three hoodlums owning a downtown corner as he mentors a rookie about what it really means to police the streets: “Them three are bad and right now they own that corner. A good cop is gonna take that corner back so that people walking by don’t have to fear for their life.”

Today, that line may sound dated. Yet in its time, the sentiment rang true. As a young police officer, I too heard versions of that same lesson: your beat is your responsibility - protect it with pride. It reflected the enduring myth of the warrior in blue—the guardian who takes back the street.

NYPD Blue - the 1990s police procedural TV drama won 20 primetime Emmy Awards and 80 nominations over its 12-year run

Of course, reality was always messier. Crime is rarely solved by a lone act of heroism. Yet the drive to bring safety and dignity to a community remains. The difference today is that we know far smarter ways to do it.

FROM WARRIOR MYTH TO SMART STRATEGIES 

Despite what the skeptics say, police can and do stop crime— but only when they use the right tools. Sometimes that involves an arrest. More often, it means creative strategies that reduce harm without relying only on force.

This is the world of Problem-Oriented Policing (POP). Conceived by the late Professor Herman Goldstein, POP has become one of the most effective, research-backed models in modern policing. Instead of reacting case by case, POP asks: why is this crime happening here and how can we change the conditions that allow it?

Over decades, POP has built a proven track record: tackling robberies, drug markets, intimate partner violence, carjackings, and more. Its philosophy is simple: don’t just respond to symptoms— use crime analysis, community partnerships, crime prevention through environmental design, and many other inventive strategies to actually solve the problems.

 

Madison Wisconsin, site of the 2025 POP Conference
- photo Wiki Creative Commons

THE POP CONFERENCE 

The annual Problem-Oriented Policing Conference is the gathering place for this work. Previous conferences introduced new strategies and concepts, such as the SafeGrowth model presented for the first time last year.

In 2025, the conference will once again return to Madison, Wisconsin after having been there in 2015. This year it will bring together practitioners, researchers, and community partners to share cutting-edge strategies and real-world results.

At the conference, you’ll learn practical tactics, such as:

• Cutting gun crime through place-based prevention and community partnerships.
• Reducing school bullying by reshaping school climates and peer norms.
• Preventing robberies by focusing on repeat victims, and situational vulnerabilities.
• Applying CPTED and SafeGrowth to redesign public spaces and reduce fear.

The conference is about equipping police and city leaders with the evidence and tools to reduce crime in meaningful, lasting ways. You can register here

The conference is run by the Center for Problem-Oriented Police headed by Michael Scott - the nexus for innovative and effective policing

FROM SIPOWICZ TO POP HEROES

Sipowicz’s message—take back the corner—was once the rallying cry of police culture. It symbolized toughness and control. But today, real heroism looks different. It’s the officer who asks why the corner became dangerous, and then works with residents to change it. It’s the leader who measures success not in arrests, but in safer neighborhoods and stronger trust.

The Sipowicz era imagined the cop as a lone warrior. POP reimagines the cop as a problem-solver, a partner, and a guardian of community well-being.

That is the spirit of the 2025 POP Conference: to give practitioners the strategies, partnerships, and confidence to reclaim not just a street corner, but the whole city and, along with it, the legitimacy and trust that sustain safe communities.

And in that sense, Sipowicz’s line still resonates. Good cops do take back the corner—but today, they do it with insight, compassion, and strategy. Those are the true heroes who guard the community.

 

Here's to our students - a life of purpose

Baltimore's Penn train station during our class night-time safety audits

by Gregory Saville

I taught my first CPTED seminar at my home university in Toronto while in graduate school when I was still a police officer in 1986. It launched my teaching, researching, planning, and consulting career. Since then we have modernized and expanded the CPTED program far beyond lights, locks, territorial controls, and target hardening. 

In recent years, with the help of the many smart and experienced members of our SafeGrowth Network, along with some leading academics, practitioners, community residents, researchers, and police officers, the SafeGrowth method has flourished as a powerful way to transform places. But today, after all these years and all this progress, I remain powerfully impressed by our students.

Landing home at the Denver International Airport - reflecting on past training

Landing in Denver last week after a flurry of training projects it struck me that I still revere the intelligence and tenacity brought to our crime prevention classes by the residents, police, city organizations, and community associations. Our recent courses in Madison, Vancouver, Baltimore, Palm Springs, Saskatoon, and New York City again reaffirmed my faith in our students. They have the most to gain and lose because they live in neighborhoods afflicted by crime. We affectionately call them SafeGrowthers, and they are remarkable.

They hold a mix of professional and personal skills and they bring a wealth of experience to the table, often with humor and passion. 

Reading, talking, walking, and thinking
- they engage the SafeGrowth material with full attention

Our students are an impressive bunch

Fighting crime and building neighborhood livability is a massive undertaking with many obstacles. And yet, even when faced with the miracle stupidity of government red tape, jumbled media distortions, and political manipulators, they still somehow manage to stay the course and get the job done. 

Outdoor Safety Audits are a popular part of the training

This year, once again, I listened to the obscene wickedness they face in the crime, drugs, and violence plaguing their neighborhoods. They tell us our training offers them tools and methods to succeed, and for that we are grateful. Yet their stories cause goosebumps:

• In one city, residents and police tackled a high-crime city-owned parking structure and presented the results to the city council, hoping for action to improve safety. A year later, after no action, a resident was robbed and murdered in exactly the way they predicted. Crime prevention is not always easy! 
• In one New York neighborhood, students came to class the day after a shooting homicide of one of their neighbors. 

Some of our students are already engaged in incredible prevention work, such as the Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence organization

• In a Baltimore class, one group tackled school violence in a high school where school administrators refused to collaborate with them. 
• In another city, residents were asked by some managers not to deliver their findings at final community presentations regarding violence at a homeless shelter. They did so anyway and, in doing so, they learned how to speak with diplomacy and candor. They ended up with a positive reaction from the shelter and charted out practical steps forward.
• In some cities, police shone as stellar leaders who engaged with the residents. In others, police never bothered to attend or participate (this being a free class in proven methods of preventing crime). 
• Some students themselves were victims of violence in their own neighborhoods. Others had once been incarcerated for violence, had reformed their lives, and were now community leaders. 

In New York, training occurred in multiple neighborhoods in different parts of the city 

When we speak to our students in class, online, or during virtual office hours, we work to provide the best resources and the latest research findings on preventing crime. Usually, we end up providing emotional support and encouragement. 

During this election season, I know who deserves our vote and whose cause we should ensure politicians support. It should be these peace warriors who do this magnificent work. To all our students from your instructors and from everyone in the SafeGrowth network... Thank you! Thank you! 

Displacement and the NIMBY wars

Downtown skyline, Madison, Wisconsin - site of our latest SafeGrowth training
- photo courtesy of Wiki Creative Commons

You always seemed so sure
That one day we'd be fighting

In a suburban war

Your part of town against mine

by Gregory Saville 

The rock group Arcade Fire wrote those lyrics about the alienation and gentrification in cities in their Grammy-winning song “The Suburbs”. It's a theme that arose several times in our SafeGrowth trainings in different cities this year, particularly as it pertains to the risk of displacing the troubles, disorder, homelessness, and crime in one neighborhood to others around the city. 

Displacement has shown up in this blog over the years including how gentrification displaces the poor, or how Melbourne, Australia positively displaced graffiti into a successful industry called street art tours.

MADISON

We spent time last week teaching in the beautiful city of Madison, Wisconsin. We were delighted by the dedication of members of very engaged police and planning departments, community members, business downtown advocates, and others. They chose their sites for projects and are now digging into their work to improve livability and safety. 

As in so many other cities we’ve visited over the past year, homelessness rose to the surface. We remind our students to keep an eye out for problems with crime displacement – moving problems from one area to another. They must not trigger fights between one part of town against another.

It is the same in other cities like Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Palm Springs where SafeGrowth teams identify homelessness as a major concern. Of course, homelessness, while troubling and tragic, is not a crime. Yet displacing people on the street from one place to another happens over and over and one neighborhood ends up fighting a war against another in another part of town. These NIMBY wars – Not-In-My-Back Yard – tarnish everyone and starts needless political wars. 

Architect Oscar Newman was among the first to describe the concept of crime displacement in his 1972 book Defensible Space - photo Livingston Press

WHAT DO WE KNOW?

The research article most commonly cited to describe crime displacement originally appeared in 1976. It was written by one of the original researchers from the first-ever evaluation of CPTED – the Westinghouse Studies. CPTED of that era was based on the work of architect Oscar Newman, among others, and his book on Defensible Space. 

However, it was in Newman's book where you will find the original deep dive into crime displacement. Newman spent years studying crime and prevention in New York public housing and he claims that it was Police Captain Arnold Berkman who tracked crime around the properties, including when it displaced. 

“As a vigorous police effort is concentrated in one project, criminals respond by moving into adjacent projects. Displacement, however, is seldom a full 100 percent.” (page 205). 

It is unclear from Newman’s book exactly how he and Captain Berkman traced displacement accurately enough to conclude that 100% displacement was rare. Subsequent research does seem to confirm that this is the case. 

Or does it? 

New research uncovered a different story - some of the first empirical examples of malign, negative crime displacement.

Movement around cities happens in many ways - trains, walkways, and roads. But other things move around cities, such as crime. This is the concept of crime displacement.

We advise those in our classes and in our projects that, when it comes to displacement, take nothing for granted. To the best of your ability, plan for the worst as well as the best. As in all types of neighborhood safety planning, include everyone potentially affected by displacement.  The question of displacement remains very much open.

Newman's conclusion from 50 years ago applies as much today: 

“There are serious moral implications to the question of displacement, and they are not as easily dismissed... The full extent of the displacement problem is yet to be understood and a means for coping with it developed.” (Page 206)