CRM 478 – Police & Community Relations
Discussion #4
Policing Special Populations
1) Summarize the police actions taken under the Safer Cities Initiative in Los Angeles’s Skid Row.
During the Safer Cities Initiative in Los Angeles’s Skid Row, the main goal was to reduce crime in the area. The area of Skid Row was rampant with open-air drug markets, prostitution, robbery gangs, theft, and vandalism. In order to reduce crime in the area, the Los Angeles Police Department used a well-defined geographical police crackdown. During the pilot program, called the “Main Street Project”, the main goal was to reduce the density of homeless encampments by using fines and citations.
The full scale “Safer Cities Initiative” was launched on September 17th, 2006. According to the article, “The immediate goals of the SCI were demonstrably achieved. The Skid Row homeless encampments were cleared. The concentration of homeless individuals was dispersed… according to LAPD internal documents and media reports, homeless-related drug overdoses, murders, and reported crimes dropped the year after the intervention”.

2) Operationally, what did the police do differently in the test area as opposed to the control areas?Explain