By Jeff Lehr
news@joplinglobe.com
JOPLIN, Mo. —
Voter investment in new street lighting in some of Joplin’s high-crime neighborhoods appears to be paying off.
As the streetlight program nears 75 percent completion, Joplin has seen a decline in property crimes in the targeted neighborhoods, according to the Joplin Police Department.
The city began installing new streetlights and upgrading others in certain neighborhoods about three years ago with funds from the half-cent sales tax for public safety that was approved by city voters in 2006.
As of the end of June, Empire District Electric Co. had completed almost 2,600 of a planned 3,500 installations and upgrades of streetlights in eight “sub beats,” or neighborhoods. Information obtained from patrol officers with the Joplin Police Department was instrumental in targeting areas of the city where improved lighting was needed.
Police Lt. Brian Lewis said many of the darker locations identified by officers “kind of lay in line with areas with higher crime stats.” The thinking was that the better illuminated a location is, the less likely people are to commit a crime there, especially property crimes, he said.
Early results were encouraging.
The city saw a 47 percent reduction in property crimes — burglaries, larcenies, thefts from vehicles, vehicle thefts and vandalism — in the targeted neighborhoods in the first two years of the program, according to police statistics. The number of lights installed and the time frame involved varied in the neighborhoods.
Joplin’s success drew mention in an Aug. 31 article in The Wall Street Journal that reported on the progress of a similar crime-fighting effort in Los Angeles. The article noted the 47 percent reduction in Joplin, but it incorrectly reported it as an across-the-board decrease in crime from 2007 through 2009.
Lewis said the figure applies only to the five categories of property crimes and not to the overall crime rate in the city or the neighborhoods. He said the streetlights have contributed significantly to a 21 percent reduction of the overall crime rate in the neighborhoods between 2007 and 2009. But the lighting has not been the only factor, he said.
The addition of about 30 police officers may have been just as important. Lewis said the additional officers allowed the Police Department to initiate directed patrols, a more “proactive” approach to policing problem neighborhoods.
“When you’ve got more time to patrol neighborhoods, you have a better effect on the crime rate,” Lewis said.
The city’s data show that in the 12 months before any streetlight installations or upgrades, the eight targeted neighborhoods experienced 235 reported property crimes. In the 12 months after the installation or replacement of the first 1,000 street lights in 2007, property crimes reported in the neighborhoods fell to 158. The total of such crimes declined to 124 for the second 12-month period as even more lighting improvements were made.
The impact may be flattening out. The city has seen just a 1 percent decrease in the overall crime rate in those neighborhoods so far this year.
“At some point, it’s going to have to bottom out because you can’t be totally crime-free,” Lewis said.
But the progress has been worth noting, he said.
