NCJ Number
159007
Date Published
1996
Length
158 pages
Annotation
This book uses Oakland's (California) SMART program (Specialized Multi-Agency Response Team) to demonstrate the effects of police efforts to improve the habitation conditions and reduce drug activity associated with targeted businesses, homes, and rental properties.
Abstract
SMART has taken a problem-oriented approach to policing, drawing on nontraditional strategies to counter the problem. Using civil remedies to pressure landowners not only made sense in the Oakland context but also was part of a wider trend in law enforcement that sought to take advantage of the civil law to ameliorate crime problems. This book provides an evaluation of the SMART program. The findings show that crime control can work when efforts are narrowly focused and implemented. The evaluation indicates the potential for police to do something about crime at particular places by documenting the improvements found at the SMART locations. This evaluation also assesses the potential "watering down" of SMART's impacts through displacement, concluding that displacement effects are far outweighed by diffusion of crime-control benefits to areas near program sites. In addition to showing that the police can control crime in targeted areas, the evaluation documents the importance of contacts between police and the community and between police and other public agencies. 210 references and name and subject indexes