| During the past few months, crime has risen to the forefront of citywide discussions about the quality of life in Madison. For many people, whether it is real or perceived, crime is on the rise in Madison and some, particularly on the eastern and western edges of the city, view their neighborhoods as less safe than just a few years ago. In response to the concerns about crime, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is placing funding for an additional 30 police officers in the city of Madison's 2008 operating budget, made possible, in part, by the early closure of two of the city's tax incremental financing districts and the resulting property tax windfall. In order to maintain the proposed level of police staffing in 2009, the city would have to make cuts elsewhere in its budget or increase property taxes. According to Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, serious crime -- murder, armed robbery, arson and similar violent crimes -- are down 4.5 percent during the first half of 2007. Yet, for most Madisonians, the perception is that crime is going up. In Wray's view, several unrelated incidents that occurred during the past year -- as well as changes in the geographical areas where crime occurs -- has fueled the perception and the fears of the residents of some west side neighborhoods. And when fear drives the perception of crime, it is oftentimes people of color who bear the brunt of those fears. Yet, overall, crime has been on the rise nationally. Oftentimes, the national statistics reflect societal trends that individual communities are not immune from. And these national trends are influenced by many factors including the economic cycle. They are trends that communities like Madison need to cope with, yet do not have complete control to do something effectively about it. "When crime goes down, you don't stand up and say 'This is what I did' because you will get burned," Wray observed. "When crime goes up, they will ask 'What did you do?'" The seeds for the perception that major crime is on the rise began to be planted, in Wray's view, with the rash of visible crimes that occurred last year. There was a rash of bank robberies and pattern robberies began to occur in the State Street area. While most violent crimes happen between people who know each other, these crimes occurred between strangers. "Even though you don't live downtown, most people connect or link to the downtown area," Wray observed during an interview with The Capital City Hues in his City-County Building office. "You go to any city and they will have some connection to the downtown. It is a benchmark to how people perceive crime is going. If crime takes place on Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee, it's going to have a different impact on the rest of the city. The same thing happens with Times Square in New York. So I think in one of our more visible areas, symbolically and in reality, with these pattern robberies taking place down there, it kicked it up a few notches. And we went over the 400 mark in the number of armed robberies last year for the first time in this city's history. Armed robberies range from strong-armed by force to an actual weapon being displayed to threaten bodily harm in taking something from them. I think that really set the stage for this." Where crime has been happening has also helped to set the stage for the perception that crime is on the rise. Throughout most of Madison's history, most crime has been relegated to small geographic pockets within the city's borders. But that has changed. Whereas in the 1980s and 1990s, Madison's hot spots for crime were in some isolated neighborhoods like Sommerset, Broadway-Simpson and Darbo-Worthington, most Madisonians were not affected by the crime that occurred in those areas because they were isolated. But as those neighborhoods have been 'cleaned up' and in many cases redeveloped, the problems associated with low-income neighborhoods have become more dispersed as low-income residents have moved into areas that offer market-driven affordable housing -- typically aging housing stock. And some of this aging housing stock is on the west side in areas unaccustomed to visible crimes being committed. Many of these crimes are called quality-of-life crimes, which include theft from autos and drug dealing. "Quality-of-life crime is more visible," Wray said. "It's more dispersed. It's not in one area. These quality of life crimes took place in 7-8 neighborhoods in the early 1990s. But I think it is more diffused; it's more out there. And these quality-of- life crimes are crimes that impact the average citizen. I'm not saying the average taxpayer. And they are more visible. Let me give you an example. Take a theft from an auto. Someone breaks into your vehicle. You as an average citizen may have never called the police before. Someone breaks into your vehicle and you call the police. We're saying 'Hey, look. What I would like you to do is self-report that. We're really busy dealing with the issues on Allied. We're really busy dealing with the issues in the downtown area. That's our focus.'" As the crimes became more dispersed -- creating an underlying perception that crime is on the rise and the city wasn't dealing with it because it had other priorities -- several incidents occurred that fanned the flames of concern. "This summer was a real difficult summer for Madisonians," Wray said. "When you think about it, we had tragic electrocutions. We had 2-3 homicides. We had the very high profile Kelly Nolen incident. We had an officer-involved shooting. To that end, there's been a lot focus on public safety and crime-related issues." The tipping point may have been the murder of Kevin Cobbins just off of Hammersley Road last July. West side residents wanted the city to deal with what they felt was rising crime on the west side. They wanted to be heard and they wanted action. And the action they wanted was what they felt was their fair share of the police department resources for their neighborhoods. "We have been extremely successful at doing two things: displacing the problem and at times, cleaning up neighborhoods," Wray said. "What people were saying on the west side, north side and east side is 'We want services throughout the city. We can no longer afford for you to spend time in just a couple of neighborhoods because we are being impacted by this as well.'" What the residents were demanding was that the department stop focusing all of its available resources on downtown and Allied Drive -- where there had been reductions in crime taking place -- and spread the city's police resources more equitably across the city regardless of the intensity of crime in any one area. This presented a challenge to Wray and the police department. "The way we are reading this is that we'e not going to lose our ability to respond and help connect with at-risk or challenged neighborhoods," Wray said. "We don't want to lose that. But what we must be able to do is be able to staff and respond to the citywide needs." And while these neighborhoods wanted an increased police presence, they didn't want it to be reactionary and intrusive. Next issue: Allocating scarce resources. |
| Chief Noble Wray talks about crime in Madison The perception of crime By Jonathan Gramling Part 1 of 2 |
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| Madison Police Chief Noble Wray |