Community Safety: Implementing
In 2009, Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation in the Dudley Square neighborhood of Boston had a fresh plan for tackling high rates of crime and foreclosures along Blue Hill Avenue, the neighborhood’s main commercial strip, the result of a partnership with Boston Police Department District B-2.
Four years later, Nuestra had acquired seven vacant buildings that were serving as crime hot spots, including the garage of a foreclosed condo project that had been a drug market and a notorious crack house sitting across the street from an owner-occupied multifamily building.
The public safety campaign also brought a teen empowerment program to the neighborhood that is using a community center developed by Nuestra for activities to keep young people engaged. Recently, the campaign spawned an effort to address prostitution on and around Blue Hill Avenue.
Overall, drug arrests and residential burglaries have dropped 30 percent in the target area since 2009, while crime in other categories has remained stable, even as foreclosures increased during the economic downturn.
A good blueprint is one thing—putting it into action can be another. “The plan was the first step, but it took a while to get traction,” says David Price, Nuestra’s executive director. How did Nuestra and the police do it?
Work on multiple fronts. When it works best, a community development approach to community safety uses coordinated strategies from a number of local institutions.
In Dudley Square, police targeted specific hot spots for patrols and citations using priorities built from maps and the planning process. Other city agencies cut weeds, boarded up abandoned buildings and cleaned-up graffiti in the area. Nuestra coordinated the response, and hired a community organizer to foster resident involvement.
And all these stakeholders work hand in hand. A team of police and CDC staff share real-time information about vacancies and emerging crime problems, for example. As a result, they can reinforce each other’s responses at a specific location with police presence, redevelopment activities and resident involvement.
Use a punch list to keep focus and mark momentum. Chasing away crime doesn’t happen overnight. It took nine months to get the garage/drug market stabilized—twice the plywood installed by the city was pried off so drug dealers could get back inside, for instance—and a year to pull together the legal and financial paperwork for Nuestra to buy the property.
Price says having monthly community meetings with the police and city representatives was crucial to maintaining forward progress, as was a punch list of responsibilities and status to keep everyone on the same page.
“I think it can be difficult for residents to wait to see results,” Price says. “The punch list was pretty informal, but it was a way to hold each other accountable and help show each other and the neighbors that things are getting done.”
Build relationships between residents and the police. Nuestra was intentional about helping the district’s police officers, residents and other local groups like business owners get to know each other and work together.
“Make sure police officers are at neighborhood meetings to improve communications and relationships,” Price says. “We initiated events like block parties for residents and police.”
When success depends in large part on things like residents being willing to call police when they see a problem, these relationships pay big dividends.
Be flexible. The original public safety work didn’t include an afterschool teen program, but when an opportunity arose to support the initiative, Nuestra jumped in.
“There are not a lot of services for teens in the community,” Price says. “Now there’s a place to go after school and in the summer and they’re involved with events like clean-ups in the neighborhood. It’s a good thing for the community.”
The campaign against prostitution on the commercial strip—which includes providing services to help the women start a better life—was also not in the original plan. But when residents and local businesses identified the need, Nuestra and the police responded.
Seek input from outside experts. Fighting crime in Dudley Square has included fixing lights in public spaces, trimming branches of overgrown trees that hid views and monitoring activities in a local park. “It's important to help the community understand that this approach is not just reacting to crime after it happens,” Price says.
To help explain the idea and build momentum, Nuestra turned to CSI, LISC’s national program for public safety, which provided trainings in the community and other resources, like experts and advice on how to address local prostitution. “That support,” he says, “is a great resource.”