by Ashley Klingensmith and Ja’Ron Smith
It’s no secret that crime and public safety have been on many Americans’ minds. Polling done in October from the Pew Research Center showed that 61 percent of registered voters said violent crime would be very important to them in the mid-term elections. These concerns from voters are justified since we have seen certain crimes increase dramatically in communities across the country (even though crime overall is still declining).
Pennsylvanians have experienced some of the largest increases in many categories of serious crime. 2021 saw a record-high number of homicides in Philadelphia at 562. 2022 was almost as bad with 516 murders. Homicide is the eighth most likely cause of death for a Philadelphian. Carjackings in Philadelphia topped 1,300 in 2022, a 53 percent increase from the previous year.
Violent crime data shows that Harrisburg is far from immune. 23 homicides occurred in Harrisburg in 2022, the most in at least 36 years and at a higher rate per population than Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
As policymakers and other stakeholders debate what should be done to curb this crisis, the answers lie within successes from local jurisdictions across the country and even within Pennsylvania. That is why Americans for Prosperity has joined with other public safety leaders across the country to launch Public Safety Solutions for America as a vehicle to elevate these successes.
Crime is highly concentrated by place and by person. Studies consistently find that five percent of a city’s geography accounts for 50 percent of the city’s crime. This concentration is even more pronounced when considering violent crime. One study found that one percent receives 63 percent of all violent crime convictions.
Since cities and towns can figure out where most violent crime is occurring and by who, implementing strategies that focus resources in these places can have significant impacts on public safety. One such approach, known as “focused deterrence” does exactly that. Made famous in the mid-90s by Boston’s Operation Ceasefire, it brings law enforcement and the community together to provide a “carrot and stick” approach to combatting violent crime and increasing prosperity within the community.
Almost every evaluation of this strategy has shown significant reductions in violent crime. Boston saw a 63 percent decrease in youth homicides per month and a 25 percent decrease in gun assaults per month. The positive impacts of this approach are noticeable in Boston as they only had 41 homicides in 2022, while Baltimore, a city with roughly 100,000 fewer people had 333.
The city of Dallas implemented a similar strategy and has now seen two consecutive years of reduction in violent crime, something that no other city in the top ten in population can say.
The success of these types of strategies may soon be paying off right here in Harrisburg as well. In May 2022, the Harrisburg City Council approved plans to begin a Group Violence Intervention Initiative (GVI) that uses the same “carrot and stick” approach. Implementation of the strategy is expected early this year. This proven prevention strategy combined with the city’s higher than average rate of solving homicides will ensure the city continues its decades long crime rate decline.
Although Philadelphia has been a focal point of the recent crime wave nationally, preliminary data from a similar program there has shown a reduction in gang-related gun violence.
These moves by city leaders are worth celebrating but the long-term success of these approaches requires not only holding criminals accountable for their actions but ensuring those who go through our system are able to successfully reintegrate back into society. One way to do accomplish this a more evidence-based approach to community supervision. Roughly 45 percent of individuals in Pennsylvania prisons were previously incarcerated in Pennsylvania – many of whom were on probation or parole.
Pennsylvania can look to other states like South Carolina and Georgia that have been able to successfully improve their supervision programs. Those states provided greater incentives for success while on supervision for good behavior, successfully completing treatment, and maintaining a job. They also stopped using prison as a default for violations of supervision that are not a crime (such as missing a meeting with a probation officer) and implemented swift and certain sanctions such as a weekend in jail.
Pennsylvania can implement similar proven policy solutions. Good legislation is currently being drafted that would do just that. We’d urge members of the legislature to take a hard look at this proposal so they can supercharge the success of local leaders in combating crime in their communities.
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Ashley Klingensmith is the state director of Americans for Prosperity-Pennsylvania. Ja’Ron Smith served in the White House as Deputy Assistant to President Donald Trump.
