Today's top T tip: If you're wanted by police, don't smoke at a T station
By adamg - 10/26/09 - 3:46 pm
MBTA Transit Police say that when passengers on the Orange Line platform at Malden complained about somebody smoking today, an officer started investigating and found a woman puffing away in the station busway. And when he started to question her discovered she was wanted in Cambridge for outstanding warrants for malicious destruction of property and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, they tweet.
Comments
And this is why enforcing
And this is why enforcing minor ordinances like no smoking, no littering, not signaling etc is always a good idea. People who break little laws are likely the ones breaking all laws.
Actually, I think it's more
Actually, I think it's more like people that break big laws are likely to break little ones.
That said, you could argue that time would be better spent having police investigate and police the bigger stuff right off the bat. Leaving the small stuff as more on the pile, or for lesser paid civil servants like they do with parking violations.
I'm sure somewhere in the city, while this person was picked up for smoking, someone had their apartment or car broken into and the guy got away Scott free.
J is right. The broken
J is right. The broken windows theory works. If anyone doesn't know what it is, please look it up. IT WORKS. It is the only reason why Time Square is somewhere you can take your wife or kid.
Times Square is not worth taking anyone.
Times Square is not worth taking anyone. Its like Faneuil Hall. Who goes to NY, with all the great things there, and takes their family to the chains that proliferate times square.
Broken Windows
Although it seems like police time would be better spent chasing burglers or gang members aroud town, the broken windows model actually works quite well because, as you indicate, bad criminals are apparently more likely to also commit little infractions. And, more to the point, its much easier to find the criminal doing something minor (like smoking on a T platform) than it is to stake out every parked car in Cambridge and wait for him to strike again. This only works, of course, with the nasty repeat offenders who have outstanding warrants or who go around carrying weapons that the police can find. Its just part of the solution, not THE solution.
the broken windows theory isn't just about cops...
... in the original article that names this theory, "Broken Windows" by James Q. Wilson and James L. Kelling, they make the point that cops can only do so much.
the idea is that routine foot patrol (note: *not* cops in cars, or on horseback or motorcycles) can have an excellent impact on reinforcing the already established social norms of the community.
they write: "The essence of the police role in maintaining order is to reinforce the informal control mechanisms of the community itself. The police cannot, without committing extraordinary resources, provide a substitute for that informal control."
broken windows doesn't mean the cops should fix your windows. or that you are more likely to be murdered in an area with broken windows. it means that the community must establish and enforce it's own normative behavior about acceptable standards within their group. it must be "we, as a community, do not want broken windows".
the police presence, in these communities, thus reinforces the ideas and standards, and allows people to feel safer. they believe somebody has an eye on maintaining the order they created, with their input, and as a known member of their community. in fact, studies have shown that communities feel better about crime and about the police when the police themselves are members of that same community and working in conjunction with those they serve. they should care about the broken windows they see because they care about the area and it's people.
this theory about community policing, as you mention, is only part of the problem. some cities and towns have too much crime and too little community control to be able to effectively manage their own crime. some towns don't need it at all, because the people can control their own broken windows.
but it is a different way at looking at the community presence in neighborhoods that would, perhaps, open some people's eyes to the opportunity that exists to work with the police, not to merely have the police working against the criminals.
(sorry for the long-winded post. disclaimer: i have a degree in criminal justice and have written far too many papers on this topic.)