Revisiting blue lights - the New York City project

by Mateja Mihinjac

Over a decade ago our colleague Ivana Dankova wrote a guest blog presenting her research on blue lights in Glasgow. 

She reported not only the beautification effect of blue lighting but also a calming effect they might have by inducing serotonin production. In her research she echoed the findings of the Japanese study  that demonstrated the possible link between blue lighting and reduction in suicides. 

It appears that blue lights are not out of fashion just yet. The New York City Metro Transit Authority (MTA) is now installing them at subway stations with the purpose of deterring suicide attempts in a so-called Track Intrusion Blue Lights pilot program.

NYC's BLUE LIGHTS PROGRAM

The pilot program emerged as one of the MTA’s Track Trespassing Task Force’s recommendations for curbing a surge in track intrusion incidents over the past five years. The MTA observed 234 incidents in 2022, amounting to a nearly 25% increase in incidents from 2018 and decided to respond to calls for action following the task force’s recommendations.

Some claim that blue lights trigger calming serotonin responses
in the brain, thereby calming potential suicidal and criminal impulses

WHAT DOES THE EVIDENCE SAY?

One of the most cited studies on the link between blue lights and suicide prevention comes from the metropolitan area train station system in Japan. The study examining data in a period between 2000 and 2010 found an 84% drop in completed suicides at 11 treatment stations with blue lights installed compared to 60 control stations with no blue lights installed.

In a subsequent study, the authors also examined the displacement effect of suicides. While finding a 74% drop in the number of suicides between 2000 and 2013 at 14 stations that had blue lights installed they found no increase in the number of suicides at five neighbouring control stations with no blue lights installed. (They did not measure whether suicides displaced to other locations.)

In another study analysing all railway suicide attempts in Japan at stations with blue lights, the authors cautioned against magnifying the effect of blue lights. Their detailed analysis of data showed that the majority of suicide attempts had not actually occurred within the station premises at night when the lights would be on. 

The scientific evidence for blue light effectiveness is mixed, 
but some data suggest it has at least minimal impact

They concluded “The installation of blue lights on platforms… [has] a much smaller impact than previously estimated.” The authors suggest that the estimate of the preventive effect of blue lights should be more conservative.  

The City of Glasgow, Scotland, and Nara City, Japan, also reported a reduction in crime rates owing to blue lights and some call for the installation of blue lighting in American cities to reduce a surge in violence.

THE DEBATE CONTINUES 

More evidence is needed as research on the effectiveness of blue lights is still up for debate. At this point, it seems blue lights alone will have a limited effect on crime and suicide prevention. However, even with minimal impact, its relatively low cost compared to other more effective methods such as full-height platform screen doors  make it an attractive and quick alternative for decision-makers expected to act on public order and related social issues.

It appears that the MTA’s Track Trespassing Task Force is well aware of the need for a holistic approach, such as SafeGrowth, that does not rely only on blue lights, but that (among other responses) includes: 

• partnerships with relevant organisations, 
• a crisis lifeline campaign, 
• a subway safety plan with the expanded presence of NYPD, 
• the installation of track intrusion detection systems, 
• expansion of CCTV, 
• a screen door pilot program. 

Similarly, just as individual hardship cannot be addressed with one isolated response, neither can neighbourhood safety and liveability. As we have emphasized repeatedly in this blog, a holistic approach that is tailored to neighbourhood-specific issues, along with partnerships with local residents and stakeholders, is the best way forward. 

Innovations in responding to street drugs - The SafeGrowth Person of the Year

The magnificent scenery of Prince George, BC, Canada 
- photo Creative Commons Wikipedia

by Gregory Saville

I recently visited Prince George, a beautiful city of 75,000 surrounded by the lush forests, rivers, and lakes of northern British Columbia. It is a northern regional rail center for Pacific freight to cities in the east and a major producer of lumber products. If you want an outdoor experience like no other, and friendly people to guide you, Prince George has lots to offer. 

It also suffers the same homelessness, toxic street drugs, and crime as every other major city in North America. Except, Prince George must also contend with climate refugees escaping towns and First Nations communities from the worst spring wildfire season on record. 

HARM REDUCTION

In some ways, Prince George is an innovator in responding to their blight issues, particularly the street drug situation. On one hand, Prince George suffers the same toxic street drugs, overdose deaths, crime and homelessness as cities everywhere. On the other hand, the British Columbia approach is rooted in harm reduction. Those knowledgeable in crime prevention and drug abuse know very well that the criminal justice system, as necessary as it is, cannot effectively dig at root problems that are better suited to social services and public health systems.

Prince George is one of many cities employing supervised safe injection sites, places where professional medical staff can supervise addicts to avoid overdoses and hopefully help them get off drugs (which also means getting them off of the offender/victimization wheel of crime). It is only a small step in the overall crime prevention/livability journey, but it is a necessary one that eases the suffering of street addicts. 

Downtown businesses suffer vandalism 

It also makes a major impact on overdose deaths and the resources to deal with them. A single overdose requires police, paramedics, hospital emergency nurses, doctors, and social workers. Last year alone, Prince George paramedics had over 1,000 calls for overdoses costing millions of dollars and, more importantly, terrible suffering for the addicts and their families. 

Safe places for harm reduction create a necessary first level of services to help addicts. The benefits are legion.

JORDAN STEWART

I met some remarkable community members in Prince George who were making a difference - city officials, business people, police, and by-law officers, people who are dedicated to making things better. I met provincial health officials from the safe injection site. Remarkable people, all.

Jordan Stewart, with her son, on a break at work 

And then I met Jordan Stewart, an indigenous First Nations woman who works downtown at a harm reduction storefront called The Pounds Project Society

Jordan is a former drug addict and homeless person herself. After struggling with her demons for years, she managed to claw her way back to a life of purpose. She got off drugs and off the street. She went to university, graduated with a nursing degree, and became a professional nurse focused on public health and drug addiction. She chose to pay it forward and confront a very dark part of the world that she herself knew all too well. She chose to make a difference. 

First, Jordan realized that half of the overdoses were from inhalation, a situation not yet addressed by the injection programs. Because she is a former drug addict, she knew that addicts who were inhaling were just as likely to die from an overdose. 

The Pounds Project - a comfortable, safe place (with a bathroom)
to supervise addicts and avoid overdoses

Then she founded a storefront project – the Pounds Project - with all the necessary approvals and volunteers, to help run it. She started small with a refurbished container and gradually located a storefront downtown where addicts could access services. She has been running this center for years and has not had overdoses at her center. Street people are able to find a safe space and a bathroom – something many communities forget to provide, and then wonder why they have public health issues near homeless encampments. 

A LEADER BY ANOTHER NAME 

It is a truly remarkable story of survival and commitment, superseded only by an inspiring young woman named Jordan Stewart. I doubt if Jordan would consider herself a community leader but, from what I could see, she is as impressive as any community leader I have seen in 30 years of doing this work.

Years ago I nominated people who represented all that is good in community leadership and SafeGrowth - outstanding citizens who give of themselves and make a better world. 

In 2009 it was Sarah Buffie in Cincinnati, and in 2015 it was Amelia Price in Philadelphia. I have not nominated anyone for SafeGrowth of the Year Award for a while, and Jordan has never been trained in the method. But it is obvious that Jordan Stewart fits into that rarified category of someone making a difference. 

People like this are hard to find. They inspire others. 

She certainly inspired me.

DEPRESSING POSTSCRIPT 

As I wrote this, I learned that the Pounds Project was defunded. Jordan and her team are faced with the unhappy choice of closing down their operations and turning away needy people in Prince George. It is hard to imagine the reasoning behind such a decision, especially given the inevitable increases in overdose deaths. There will no doubt be increases for police and hospital services, along with paramedic calls for services, as if those workloads were not already too high. What a shame. 

Jordan, her team, and the city of Prince George deserve better!

The 2023 Problem-Oriented Policing Conference

The famous Pearl Street pedestrian mall in Boulder, Colorado
- photo Creative Commons, Wiki

by Gregory Saville

In a blog last December, I wallowed in one of my annual whine-fests about the state of policing when I wrote about organizational amnesia and the post-Ferguson wake-up for police strategies.

Now I must retrace my steps, stop whining, and introduce one of the best antidotes to that cynicism. 

Each year a group of the best in policing gathers to consider a new way forward for police. They examine innovative problem-solving, community collaborations, and how to use data and analysis to solve intractable crime issues. I am writing, of course, about this year’s 31st Annual International Problem-Oriented Policing Conference.

There are sessions on policing homelessness, reimagining campus safety, responding to active shootings, new approaches to field training and the PTO model, and crime prevention through environmental design.

In short, if we had police departments across the country with a much deeper dive into this form of policing in modern policing, we would have less community-police conflict and a safer community. It is really that simple. 

Hilton Embassy Suites is the venue in Boulder - Photo Orbitz

I will be presenting both CPTED and SafeGrowth at this conference. As well, I am very excited to see some exemplary work of police officers around the world as they compete for top honors in the prestigious Herman Goldstein Problem-Oriented Policing Award program.

Professor Herman Goldstein was among the most thoughtful and caring police scholars when it comes to policing as if people matter. He delighted in hearing the amazing success stories of police working with communities to fight crime. His influential book Problem-Oriented Policing is a seminal text on how to do policing right. 

The method is described in detail on the Center for Problem Oriented Policing website, led by Michael Scott, clinical professor and director of the center.

Register for the conference here.

Scale is good for economies... but is it good for social policy?

Budgeting for social agencies - Lessons from Calgary 
Photo Creative Commons

GUEST BLOG: Larry Leach is Executive Director of 12 Community Safety Initiative (12CSI), a non-profit crime prevention collaborative in Calgary, Canada, one of the initial sponsors of the 2015 SafeGrowth Summit. In 2018 12CSI won the Alberta Solicitor General's Award for Community Collaboration and the Ambassador program won it in 2022. Larry has been a Huffington Post blogger and is involved in the SafeGrowth Network. He was awarded with the Queens Diamond and Platinum Jubilee medals for his contributions to community-building.

I recently started analyzing the budgets of social agencies in Calgary and the numbers may stagger many not working within the sector. While my analysis is not yet complete, it is clear that the collective budgets of agencies serving the homeless and vulnerable sectors are well over $200 Million per year. Most of those monies come from the Federal Government (some through Calgary Homeless Foundation) to agencies with budgets ranging from $10 - $40 million. 

While I wouldn’t advocate that those monies aren’t spent in a justified way or that less should be spent, we look at the scale of these local agencies with budgets over $10 million to examine their relative effectiveness. We ask the question: Can the system and the agencies employ these significant resources in a more community-centered way?

In many cases, community engagement starts and ends with a town
hall meeting. That is not enough!

COMMUNITY EXPERTS

I heard a great quote at a Crime Prevention conference recently from a registered social worker, Kassidy Green from Boyle Street Community Services: “I am a member of the community first, then a member of my profession (social worker)”. That resonates with me. 

I work with a team of Ambassadors that walk our neighbourhoods daily working with vulnerable people to help them access services. In that work, the thing we hear most is a simple thank you for speaking to them with respect and trying to help them. It is a one-to-one, person-to-person, holistic community approach.

Community action teams have direct involvement on the
streets of their own neighbourhood 

When considering CPTED and SafeGrowth, it is said many times throughout these blogs that the real experts are the people that live in these neighbourhoods. In many cases, these agencies may have once upon a time engaged communities they work in, but in practice, the relationships are nonexistent for most of them. Some of the methods they may have used to justify their approach to their funders are described in prior SafeGrowth blogs, especially They Won't Get Involved 1 and They Won't Get Involved 2.  

Like many City of Calgary engagement sessions, you do not build community relationships by standing in front of a room and telling people that live in the community how an agency is going to improve the quality of life. That may help an agency check a tick box for the funders, but it does nothing to establish positive relationships. The best way to engage a community is outlined in They Won't Get Involved blogs mentioned above.

Community engagement should also mean fun activities, socializing, and food

OUTPUTS AND OUTCOMES

Let’s go in a different direction. What if the scale of these agencies prevents them from spending time building relationships with communities? What if these monies went to smaller groups or directly to the community itself through the social agency to solve social issues one block, one person, and one community at a time?

Let’s consider outputs vs. outcomes. Often, when you look at agency reports, they speak about how many things they gave out, from food hampers to safe needles. Does that show a good outcome? How were people’s lives affected? I heard a great example at a conference by Daniel J Jones, Chair of Justice Studies, NorQuest College. When the Police hold a press conference and stand in front of a table full of illegal drugs that they confiscated on the street, does the price of cocaine go down? 

Going forward in community funding, I think we must consider the following fundamental questions: 

• How are we affecting people’s lives? 
• Are we improving people’s lives? 
• How does what we do affect the community around our work? 
• How do we empower the community to be part of the solution? 
• Is what we are doing keeping people from improving their lives? 
• Is what we are doing supporting everyone in the community?

Tragedy close to home

Police are not the answer to prevent shootings
- photo Rosemary Ketchum (Pexels.com) 

by Mateja Mihinjac

Here in Europe, we would often watch in horror weekly reports of mass shootings from United States. Now, sadly, we understand better than ever we’re not immune from them in Europe either. Last week Europe followed in disbelief similar horrific events that unfolded in Serbia. 

First, a 13-year-old boy shot and killed eight school children and a school security guard and injured another six pupils and a teacher in a Belgrade school.

Less than 48 hours later, a 21-year-old man shot and killed eight people and wounded another fourteen from a moving vehicle across several locations southeast of Belgrade.

Following a silent march to protest against gun violence Serbian leadership had no choice but to vow immediate action to toughen gun control measures in the country. In the wake of public scrutiny, the Serbian Education Minister has also resigned.

THE AFTERMATH

In the aftermath of the Serbian events, my country of Slovenia has also been anxiously responding to potential threats from within. There is now increased police presence around schools across the country. There were even some discussions about installing metal detectors at schools. 

Teens watch police tactical officers from a distance 

One school has also received anonymous email threats, which prompted the initial placement of police patrols around two schools and the absence of some children from schools on that day. 

The Serbian events have now added to calls for urgent focus on the problem of youth violence, its detection and prevention, which had been in the media spotlight since last month when peer violence in one Slovenian school was caught on camera and shared on social media.

QUALITY NEIGHBOURHOODS – QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS

Feeling connected to peers, neighbours, and their neighbourhood, I believe, acts as an antidote to feelings of loneliness, alienation, and feelings of not belonging. The International CPTED Association’s recently published CPTED Guidebook for Schools similarly acknowledges the importance of social and psychological environment – in connection with physical – for children’s wellbeing and prevention of violence in schools. In fact, an ICA webinar on school safety delves directly into these problems.

SafeGrowth specialist and city planner, Elisabeth Miller, engages
school children in planning and crime prevention early in their education 

I believe that a positive neighbourhood environment and a healthy community environment are even more crucial for children and youth. We as adults have the responsibility for ensuring healthy environments for their positive emotional development. 

Moreover, they should be actively engaged in neighbourhood life and encouraged to participate in decision-making activities concerning their neighbourhood, and their schools. This is why in SafeGrowth we insist on the diversity of our neighbourhood SafeGrowth teams also in terms of age where children and youth can become active participants in neighbourhood life.

The quality of our neighbourhoods depends on the quality of relationships we have with our neighbours – and children are also part of that equation. 

Neighbourhoods are not only for people

Relaxing in Central Park - dogs are part of the scene

By Tarah Hodgkinson

One of the most common complaints I hear when working with neighbourhood residents around community safety is not what you might think. Generally, we work in neighbourhoods with some of the highest crime rates. One might assume that when asking residents of these neighbourhoods about their biggest concerns they would raise issues like gun violence, youth gangs, or drug trafficking. 

Nope. They talk to us about dog poop. 

Surprising right? Not for us. The inability of a neighbourhood to deal with the droppings of their four-legged friends highlights many of the same issues that contribute to crime and violence. These issues include a lack of territorial control and maintenance, an unwillingness to intervene, and a failure to work together to support the needs and values of the community.

A proliferation of pet feces is often indicative of other issues. 

WHY IS DOG POOP IMPORTANT?

First, there aren’t supports in these neighbourhoods for pet ownership. Supports include green space, especially dog parks, locations with extra bags in case residents need them, and ample waste baskets. These might seem like minor changes, but they impact how residents clean up after their pets. 

Second, people don’t care about their neighbourhood because they don’t feel a part of their neighbourhood. They aren’t connected to other people (what we term in 2nd Generation CPTED - socially cohesive) and so they are less likely to be concerned about leaving animal waste. When people are disconnected from their neighbours, informal controls are weaker, for example, worrying what your neighbours might think and behaving better.

Third, there is no ownership and maintenance of the spaces. People are more likely to dispose of their dog’s droppings appropriately when it is clear that a place is cared for and maintained. This is even more effective if residents know the owner of the space. 

Simple message for dog owners - show respect!

PET OWNERSHIP

Pet ownership increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic as many people had the additional time and space to care for a new friend. However, places for these furry friends are being reduced as green spaces are being fenced off or removed. 

Creating connected communities, with the support necessary for pet ownership will make our neighbourhoods healthier and more liveable. 

But to do that, we need to recognize that neighbourhoods aren’t just for people. And if we want to support a pet-friendly city, we need to ensure that our neighbourhoods are built for everyone – including our furry friends.