Blogtown, PDX

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

News Crime Down By 20%—But Thanks to Whom?

Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, May 23 at 8:36 PM

Crime in downtown Portland is down 20% thanks to the Portland Police Bureau. I’m sorry, that was a mistake. I meant to say, “thanks to the Portland Business Alliance.” From today’s PBA press release:

Portland, Ore…The Downtown Business Improvement District experienced the largest reduction in crime in Portland during the first quarter of 2007, making “downtown one of the safest neighborhoods in the city,” according to Mayor Tom Potter. Crime is down 20 percent downtown, compared to the same time period in 2006. Crime in all of Central Precinct was down by 15 percent during the same period, while the entire city saw a reduction of 8 percent.

“A tremendous amount of work and dedication by the Alliance’s Clean and Safe security team and the Central Precinct police officers helped to accomplish these results,” said Bill Sinnott, Director of the Portland Clean and Safe Program. “Clean and Safe will continue working closely with all our partners in law enforcement and with other security companies in downtown Portland to build on these results.”

I’m glad Sinnott is committed to working with his “partners in law enforcement” to get this job finished.

On a separate note, here, pulled from Wikipedia, is the plot from Robocop. See if you can notice any parallels:

RoboCop is a 1987 cyberpunk action movie and satire of business-driven capitalism, directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film is set in a dystopian near future, in Detroit, Michigan. Violent crime is out of control, and the city is in financial ruin. The city contracts the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) to fund and operate the police department, in effect privatizing it. OCP is not interested in rebuilding “Old Detroit” but with replacing it with a modern utopia called “Delta City”. Before this large construction project can begin, OCP wishes to end crime in the city, and creates a superhuman law-enforcement agent known as RoboCop.

The message? BEWARE PRIVATE ENTITIES WITH THREE LETTER ACRONYMS, TRYING TO PRIVATIZE LAW ENFORCEMENT IN YOUR CITY. That’s all.

Permalink

Comments

How come Bill is willing to work with law enforcement, but not the press or the general public?

And why did we need a sit-lie law? The first quarter of 2007 was indeed a time when we didn't have a sit-lie law.

Posted by Israel Bayer | May 23, 2007 9:02 PM

Yes, but what happens when Bill is no longer willing to work with law enforcement?

DOES HE INVOKE THE FOURTH DIRECTIVE?

Posted by Matt Davis | May 23, 2007 9:09 PM

I could have sworn I heard a cop tell a busker today that he had "FIFTEEN SECONDS TO COMPLY."

Posted by Beaton | May 23, 2007 9:20 PM

Matt, earlier you had a blog entry about downtown becoming a "playground for the super rich." Is crime going down by 20% a signal of that trend or merely a coincidence?

In other words, if having downtown be a playground for the super rich means it can also be crime free, is that a worthy trade to make? Or could it be crime free WITHOUT being a playground for the super rich?

Posted by Morgan | May 23, 2007 10:15 PM

Meanwhile in other news, crime rates in the other 4 quadrants of the city raised an interesting 5 percent.

Posted by Dex | May 24, 2007 8:57 AM

Morgan: I'm as happy as you seem to be that crime downtown has fallen by 20 per cent. And I'm even happier that somebody's actually paying attention to my blog posts. Strewth!

But the issue, for me, is not that crime is down. It's who's taking responsibility and credit for that fall: the business alliance, whose private security firm is not publicly accountable in any way, shape, or form.

And if having downtown be a playground for the super rich means having no crime, NO. That's not a worthwhile trade. See above, Re. Robocop and a modern utopia called "Delta City."

To continue the metaphor, I would rather rebuild "Old Detroit" or at least preserve its humanity than have the Business Alliance pay to sweep its undesirable elements into the river.

Posted by Matt Davis | May 24, 2007 11:14 AM

Anyone who's taken any sociology classes can tell you that the police don't control the crime rate.

Posted by Hula | May 24, 2007 12:16 PM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).