A Safe Community
(Prepared by the Public Safety Institute of Calumet College on behalf of the Northwest Indiana Quality of Life Council)
1.0 Aspiration
A safe community affords a level of comfort and public order in which the general perception of safety is high and individual behavior does not have to be dramatically modified in order for one to avoid fear or harm.
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1.1 Are We Safe?
This report focuses primarily
on criminal justice statistics and secondarily upon the factors that affect
public safety outcomes. The criminal justice system is based on the front line
work of the various professionals in the field of public safety—police, fire,
emergency medical services, emergency management services, public health
agencies, and other “first responders.” Emerging areas in the field include
homeland security and private security.
The theme arising from the
safe community indicators is that the region should invest further in
data-driven systems and resource sharing strategies to improve the overall
rating of public safety in the region. Such information can help shape public
perception and substantially change conditions in high risk areas.
Citizens may have a right to personal liberty, but the shared pursuit of a safe community comes from the roles, responsibilities, and actions undertaken by public safety professionals, elected officials, the business community, academia, unions, the non-profit sector, the media, and the citizens in ensuring this basic tenet of American life. These efforts over time will answer how well northwest Indiana is faring with respect to developing and sustaining a safe community.
The major indicators tell us that northwest Indiana region was a safer region in 2005 than it was in 2001. However, too many unknowns remain that may indicate otherwise. The charge to the region then is to continually work together in ways that will allow for greater information and resource sharing to prevent crime and increase safety, as both realized and perceived in a safe community.
1.2 What is a Safe Community?
How does the northwest
Indiana region determine whether it is a safe community? The conventional
wisdom is to look at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime
Report known as the Crime Index. The Crime Index measures national, state,
and community safety by tracking statistics on the major violent and property
crimes and the lesser offenses that impact quality of life in a region. The
drawback is that the Index measures
criminal activity outcomes, telling us where we have been but not necessarily where
we are now—or where we may be going.
To understand current
conditions and look ahead, northwest Indiana
The measurements of current public
safety in one’s community, most often, are subjective. Individuals rely on the
media or personal experience as indications of a safe community. Major crimes
make headlines while the lesser offenses are blotted, yet both influence
perceptions of crime. If an individual is a victim a crime, his or her personal
crime rate is 100 percent, regardless of how safe the surroundings may
otherwise be.
Ultimately, public safety is
about how safe people feel, individually and in our communities. When citizens
feel safe, they take advantage of public spaces, go to the parks, maintain homes,
tend to neighbors, invest locally, and engage themselves in community life.
When citizens believe a community to be unsafe, they modify their personal
behaviors—abandon the public spaces, pull children out of the schools, and move
to areas perceived as safer—to the detriment of community morale.
We follow these courses based on what we perceive, independent of what the data may show. The challenge of developing meaningful indicators is to create greater access to key public safety information and penetrate the wall of perceptions with data that provides not only information but also context.
1.3 Five Big Ideas
The law enforcement component of public safety is gradually reforming around data-driven strategies or what Dr. George Kelling has called the “Five Big Ideas.” These include problem-oriented policing, COMPSTAT, “Broken Windows,” community policing, and leverage. These have emerged as “best of breed” practices.
Problem-oriented policing is about understanding the nature of crime and looking at its causes. Often crime has a history—a past—and may have a future if nothing is done.
COMPSTAT is an accountability process that measures crime, assigns responsibility, and tracks progress toward lowering it. The New York City Police Department was a pioneer in this process, and it achieved stunning results.
“Broken Windows” refers to the practice of enforcing minor violations in a community, which paradoxically reduces major crimes. If a broken window isn’t fixed, then soon more windows will be broken, the message being that no one is in charge so anything goes. Again, New York was one of the first cities to make use of this strategy. More recently, Newark, New Jersey has begun to experience similar success.
Community policing, widely misunderstood early on, engages the police much more actively with the community than had been the practice during the previous half century, and it aims to create a partnership.
2.0 Indicators
The pattern of a safe
community forms from the social, economic, and environmental conditions present
in the northwest Indiana region. These factors
may significantly impact the nature and the frequency of crime in a given area.
The demographics of a jurisdiction may shed light on what influences criminal
behavior but certainly do not fully explain or excuse the motives of a
criminal. Nor should quick conclusions be drawn about the areas where higher
rates of crime exist or those areas where it does not. Law enforcement understands
well that criminals respect no geographical boundaries and that crime—and the
potential to be a victim—exist on some level everywhere at any time.
In 2005 the state of Indiana ranked 15th out
of 50 states in the country in terms of population. Indiana ranked 30th in violent crime: 22nd
for murder, 32nd for rape, 25th for robbery, and 36th for aggravated assault.
In property crime, Indiana ranked 25th: 21st in burglary, 26th in larceny, and 22nd in motor vehicle
theft. In comparison to 2000, Indiana has lowered its ranking for violent crimes but increased its ranking in the rate of property crimes.
The crime index for northwest Indiana, between 2001 and 2005, shows an 8 percent decrease in the rate of total violent crimes per capita and a 6 percent
decline in total property crimes per capita. In 2005 the region experienced 404
violent crimes and 3,464 property crimes per 100,000 residents.
2.1 Index Crimes
Murder
In 2005 the regional murder
per capita rate was 12 murders per 100,000 residents. Between 2001 and 2005,
the murder rate per capita in the region declined by 27 percent. All three counties’ murder per capita rate has declined. The city of Gary has also experienced an 11 percent decline over this period, and in 2005 the city
had 58 murders per 100,000 residents.
Based upon this indicator, Northwest Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005
than it was in 2001; however, it was significantly less safe than both the
nation and the state.
Rape
In 2005 the regional rape per capita rate was 25 rapes per 100,000 people. Between 2001 and 2005, this rate declined by 13 percent. Over the five-year period, the region reported a total of 1,070 rapes against women for an average of 178 rapes per year.
Based upon this indicator, northwest
Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005 than it was in 2001, and it was
safer than both the nation and the state.
Robbery
Based upon this indicator,
Northwest Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005 than it was in 2001,
and it was safer than Indiana but less safe compared to the nation as a whole.
Aggravated Assault
In 2005 the regional aggravated
assault per capita rate was 243 per 100,000 people. Between 2001 and 2005, this
rate declined by 9 percent.
Based upon this indicator,
Northwest Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005 than it was in 2001,
and it was safer than the nation but less safe than Indiana.
Burglary
In 2005 the regional burglary
per capita rate was 642 per 100,000 people. Between 2001 and 2005, this rate declined
by 5 percent.
Based upon this indicator, northwest Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005
than it was in 2000, and it was safer than both the nation and the state.
Motor Vehicle Theft
In 2005 the regional vehicle
theft per capita rate was 482 per 100,000 residents. Between 2001 and 2005,
this rate declined by 9 percent.
Based upon this indicator,
Northwest Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005 than it was 2001;
however, it was less safe compared to both the U.S. and Indiana.
Larceny Theft
In 2005, the regional larceny
theft per capita rate was 2,340 per 100,000 people. Between 2001 and 2005, this
rate declined by 6 percent.
Based upon this indicator, Northwest Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005 than it was in 2001 and is on par with both the U.S. and Indiana trends.
Arson
Since arson is a newly added
offense the local data are incomplete and therefore excluded from this
analysis.
2.2 Minor Offenses
The UCR program provides
arrest data on Part II offenses, yet many local police departments do not
report these types of crimes to the national depository. Therefore, the data
are incomplete and must be collected directly from local police departments. Improving
the quality of and accessibility to these crime statistics will aid in the
regional understanding of how lesser crimes upon quality of life.
To introduce minor offenses as
a new measure of public safety, several minor offenses have been selected from the Lake County and LaPorte County Sheriff departments based upon the completeness of the data for comparison. The minor
offenses are presented as total counts instead of rate per capita.
The number of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases has declined by 39 percent in the Lake County Sheriff service area while it has increased by 143 percent in LaPorte County Sheriff district. The number of Fraud arrests has increased in both Lake and LaPorte County Sheriff departments’ territories by 76 and 143 percent, respectively. Since minor offense data are incomplete, it is difficult to determine if Northwest Indiana is experiencing higher or lower incidence of lesser crimes in 2005 than in 2000.
2.3 Child Protection and Juvenile Delinquency
Youth crime is a major factor
in public safety; and without innovative prevention and intervention measures, juvenile
delinquency can migrate into adult criminal behavior. Child protection and
juvenile delinquency statistics help to measure how well the Northwest
Indiana region is faring at protecting this vulnerable population
and in addressing deviant behavior by children under the age of 18 years. Research
also suggests that some children, who are victims of abuse and neglect, act out
by engaging in delinquent or criminal behavior.
Child Protection
The “substantiated cases” represent
reported cases in which Child Protection Services’ investigation found that a
child indeed had been abused or neglected.
Between 2000 and 2006, the
average annual regional caseload for the following substantiated cases was 1,296
cases of child neglect, 357 cases of physical abuse, and 269 cases of sexual
abuse.
When comparing 2000 to 2006, child
neglect declined by 32 percent from 1719 to 1164 cases. Child physical abuse
fell by 34 percent from 457 to 300 cases. Child sexual abuse declined by 27 percent from 293 to 213 cases.
In 2005, five children from
the region died as a result of child abuse and neglect. In 2006, 198 parents
terminated their parental rights.
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile delinquency case
filings represent cases involving a child under the age of 18 engaging in
delinquent behavior. Juvenile delinquency cases are those in which a person
under the age of 18 committed a criminal offense that would be considered a
status offense as an adult. We find that regionally, the handling of juveniles
by the justice system is increasing. 
Juvenile delinquency cases
grew by 40 percent between 2000 and 2006, while Indiana increased by 14 percent in this
period.
Juvenile status cases grew by
180 percent between 2001 and 2006, while Indiana's
increased by 17 percent.
Based upon this indicator, Northwest Indiana was a safer regional community in 2005
than it was in 2000.
Youth crime is also affected
by those factors mentioned earlier in this report but also by education related
performance. Truancy, suspension and expulsion rates, children in poverty, and
the receiving of free or reduced lunches are some of the key variables adversely
impacting the behavior of school age children.
"Not every truant becomes a criminal, but
every criminal has been a truant." Truancy Diversion Initiative
The identification of
meaningful corrections indicators is still evolving. Additional information has
been requested from the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) Planning and Research Division. Corrections
data can help define regional issues and needs related to crime prevention,
offender reentry, and recidivism policy and programs.
In 2007, the recidivism rates for prisoners released in 2004 were 26.7 percent in Lake County, 18.4 percent in Porter County, and 31 percent in La Porte County.
In 2007, 886 inmates were
released from the IDOC; 91 percent were males and 9 percent were females. Of
this total released offender population, 59 percent were African-American and
40 percent were Caucasian. Looking at race/ethnicity by gender, black males
represented 60 percent of the male offender released population while white
females represented 54 percent of the female offender population in this year.
Three corrections release
programs are predominately used to transition offenders back into society. Parole
accounted for the exit of 50 percent of the adult offenders, 18 percent were released
on probation, 18 percent were released through the community transition program,
and the balance were released through other means.
Substance Abuse
Substance abuse is a
significant factor influencing individual behavior that leads up to or
contributes to deviant and criminal behavior. A study of the Lake County Jail
inmate population sought to measure the extent of drug usage and the role drugs
played in the crimes for they were arrested. The findings showed that 48.6
percent of the respondents used drugs at least four times a day, 28.2 percent
of the inmates stated that drugs played a part in their arrest, 52.9 percent of
the inmates admitted using drugs on the day of their arrest, 51.7 percent
believe themselves to have a drug problem, and 28 percent of respondents
committed their crime to be able to purchase drugs. When respondents were asked
about their first experience with drugs, 8.4 percent admitted using drugs
before the age of 12, 33.4 percent between the ages of 13 and 15 and 22.1
percent between the ages of 16 and 18.
Recidivism
In 2007, the recidivism rates for prisoners released in 2004 were 26.7 percent in Lake County, 18.4 percent in Porter County, and 31 percent in La Porte County. In 2007, 886 inmates were released from the IDOC; 91 percent were males and 9 percent were females. Of this total released offender population, 59 percent were African-American and 40 percent were Caucasian. Looking at race/ethnicity by gender, black males represented 60 percent of the male offender released population while white females represented 54 percent of the female offender population in this year. Three corrections release programs are predominately used to transition offenders back into society. Parole accounted for the exit of 50 percent of the adult offenders, 18 percent were released on probation, 18 percent were released through the community transition program, and the balance were released through other means.
2.5 Regional Progress
Two recommendations were offered in the 2004 Quality of Life Indicators Report to move us closer to our aspiration of a safe community. The first recommendation was the engagement of the Public Safety Institute of Calumet College of St. Joseph (formerly the Law Enforcement Institute) with the law enforcement practitioners to support the implementation of the best practices as well as to support other training, service and research projects. Through the financial support of U.S. Congressman Pete Visclosky, the Public Safety Institute has established itself as a regional resource, and its facilitation of these efforts, including a centralized database, is underway.
Another recommendation was that communities move to adopt best practices by 2010. Since these strategies are data-driven, their implementation has certainly been slowed by the limited availability of data in the past. This is not strictly something police agencies can control by themselves, but rather requires political and community support.
The region has progressed in other ways as well. First, eleven of the seventeen police agencies in Lake County have centralized their information processing on a common software system hosted by the Lake County Sheriff. This, in turn, creates the opportunity to standardize and streamline information. Through additional investments, this technology can be the primary mechanism for regionalizing information for deeper analysis and wider use on a more frequent basis. Among the benefits of this will be more efficient and effective utilization of over-stressed public safety resources, better strategic decisions, and more community dialogue.
In 2006 the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force was formed under the guidance of the Public Safety Institute at Calumet College. The task force is a major advance in interagency collaboration, and by sharing scarce detective resources to address non-routine cases, it can result in significant overtime savings while making communities safer by taking criminals off the street more quickly. It is modeled on similar groups in Illinois and other areas of the country that have proven to be especially effective in solving difficult crimes quickly and economically.
Recognizing that there is a compartmentalization of public safety data, and that the lack of standardization is a barrier to making effective use of information, the Public Safety Institute at Calumet College set the establishment of a regional data repository as one of its primary objectives. This is important not only for public safety agencies, but also to enhance dissemination of information to other interested parties such as community groups and academia. The repository will serve to provide information on a more current basis and support more analytical possibilities than are currently available.
Changes in technology enabled by the internet have created opportunities to put more data where it is needed most—in the hands of first responders. The Lake County Sheriff has established a pilot project to explore the possibility to use wireless internet broadband (Wi-Fi) as a major strategy to both improve and reduce the cost of public safety communications. A similar initiative under the leadership of Indiana University Northwest focuses on the additional potential benefits of wireless broadband internet specifically by improving government efficiency and by addressing the “digital divide” as it relates to economic development. These Wi-Fi projects raise the possibility of significant leverage in creating this communications infrastructure region-wide.
The Porter County Sheriff’s Chemical Dependency and Addiction Treatment program, funded by inmate booking fees, has had a significant impact on recidivism among prisoner’s treated, with percentages dropping from the mid 60s to the mid 40s. Approximately half of the participants are court-ordered, with the other half participating voluntarily.
The tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, and more recently at Northern Illinois University have sharpened the focus on campus safety among the higher education community. The region’s colleges and universities are safe places, but these two tragedies have spurred increased collaboration among local institutions. Purdue University Calumet has taken the lead in identifying and sharing best practices.
The threat of terrorism has added another dimension to the challenges facing first responders. Northwest Indiana is a target rich environment, situated in such a way that it is a nexus of rail, roadway, pipeline, and communications infrastructure. Collecting the information to “connect the dots” is a critical activity, and the region’s public safety agencies are participating actively with Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s new Fusion Center, which has been recognized as one of the leading state intelligence operations in the country. This participation will benefit local law enforcement by adding additional depth to their available information resources.
3.0 Grade and Recommended Actions
GRADE: "B-" TREND: "IMPROVING"
A grade of “B-” with an improving trend is assigned to this policy domain and affirmed by a member vote to acknowledge the improvement in the public safety indicators during the four year period ended 2005. The signs of cooperation among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are encouraging but need to continue and be strengthened.
Strategic Goal: We reiterate the call for all communities in Northwest Indiana to adopt and fully implement comprehensive, data-driven and problem-oriented policing strategies by 2010 that includes innovative approaches centered on the ‘five big ideas’.
The achievement of this goal would contribute to two of the Quality of Life’s organizing principles: sustainable economic development and social equity.
Actions: First, the steps taken thus far to build a robust, responsive database of public safety information should be continued and expanded. Much remains to be done, including efforts to continue consolidation, the development of standards, and the expansion of continuous training. The scope of information needs to be broadened beyond law enforcement data to also include fire, EMS, corrections, court data, and so forth. Support for these efforts is critical to continued progress.
Second, to more fully engage the community in the process of keeping our communities safe, the information about public safety needs to be made available in ways that will be useful to the general public, academia, and policy makers. This action includes obtaining a better understanding of the general public’s perception of safety and the subsequent development of indicators to measure these perceptions against actual crime rates. Greater transparency will bolster confidence in our public agencies and empower citizens to become involved.
Third, the Lake County Good Government Initiative’s Public Safety Committee proposed the concept of regional joint public safety training facility be explored and, if feasible, established in Northwest Indiana. Such an approach would serve all the first responder community, and allow an integrated training curriculum to be developed which would permit effective joint training. It also holds the potential to make better use of scarce training dollars while insuring high-quality training.
Fourth, several barriers still exist to helping our public safety agencies become more professional. Released in 2007, The Kernan-Shephard Report recommends that Indiana’s peculiar practice of permitting government employees to also serve as elected officials be eliminated. In addition to increasing the likelihood of conflicts of interest and diminishing public trust, the political dimension places an undue burden on our police and fire agencies that diverts attention from practicing their profession. Efforts to accomplish this should be supported.
Finally, the evident trend toward increased regional collaboration and resource sharing should be encouraged and expanded, in the name of both increased professionalism and government efficiency. Two projects deserve attention and support: the regional joint public safety training facility and the shared wireless broadband infrastructure.
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