NCJ Number
175893
Date Published
1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The Maryland HotSpot Communities Initiative is a coordinated State effort to support comprehensive neighborhood strategies to reduce crime and the fear of crime by providing a wide range of grants and targeted operational and technical assistance.
Abstract
The rationale for the program is based in the findings of national studies that show more than 50 percent of violent crime occurs at about 3 percent of addresses, a phenomenon that holds true in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Pilot projects and research show that a coordinated effort in hotspots can have a dramatic impact on crime, fear, and neighborhood decline. Although traditional police sweeps tend to produce only brief respites in neighborhood crime, HotSpot Communities will achieve sustained improvement in public safety by combining intensive enforcement with community policing; community mobilization and activities to reclaim public space; intensive supervision of adult and juvenile offenders on probation or parole; rapid responses to public nuisances; prevention activities for youth; and other strategies. The initiative will foster new crime- fighting partnerships between State, local, and the Federal Government and communities, as well as between criminal and juvenile justice agencies and between public, private, nonprofit, religious, and community service organizations. Each of 36 designated HotSpot Communities, nominated by local officials and selected by the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, will receive a share of $3.5 million in State and Federal grant funding to support "core" and "enhancing" strategy components. Each grantee will receive targeted operational and technical assistance from various government agencies. This report contains a chart that identifies the "core" and "enhancing" elements of a comprehensive community-focused strategy, summarizes the key features of each element, and outlines the State support available to implement the elements through the HotSpot Communities Initiative.