Bright light! Bright light!

Bright lights don’t reduce crime. Good lighting might. Too often people reflexively think that the brighter the street light, the safer the streets. I don’t buy it.

Lighting sets the tone. Street lighting is no different. If you light the streets well at night (not just bright, but well), people will go out and, without even knowing it, help keep things safe.

In Holland, they call the concept of creating a nice environment gezelligheid. I wish we would take this concept into account when planning lighting and public safety in our public spaces. Candles are gezellig. Florescent lights aren’t.

Horribly bright orange sodium vapor lights are probably just as bad as having no light as all. You can’t have a romantic stroll under orange lights. You’ll never want to sip a drink under bad street lighting. Bad lighting makes people look ugly and tells them to go inside. Fewer eyes on the street make the streets less safe. Good lighting sooths people and lets you see the street, the stars, and the moon. Good lighting makes you want to take an evening stroll and kanoodle.

This came to mind while reading Eric Jay Dolin’s gripping Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America. Ever since I first read Moby Dick (like 4 months ago), I’ve been fascinated with whaling. In Dolin’s wonderful book, he quotes John Adams making what must be one of the earliest references linking dark streets to crime.

In 1783, 46 years before Sir Robert Peel established the first metropolitan police force in London, Britain passed a tax that effectively banned American whale products. In 1785, John Adams made his appeal to the British to lift this ban:

The fat of the spermaceti whale gives the clearest and most beautiful flame of any substance that is known in nature, and we are all surprised that you prefer darkness, and consequent robberies, burglaries, and murders in your streets, to the receiving, as a remittance, our spermaceti oil. The lamps around Grosvenor Square, I know, and in Downing Street, too, I suppose, are dim by midnight and extinguished by two o’clock; whereas our oil would burn bright till 9 o’clock in the morning, and chase away, before the watchmen, all the villains, and save you the trouble and danger of introducing a new police into the city. (Dolin 2007, p. 168)

The appeal failed. Britain retained its protectionist policies. It’s interesting to think of the role whale oil (or the lack thereof) contributed to street crime and the establishment of modern-day police.

Fixing Broken Windows in Chicago

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weiss says he plans more foot and bike patrol and an emphasis on "broken windows" policing. This is great news for Chicago... if it actually happens. It's tough to get cops out of cars. But Weiss is certainly saying the right things. This is reported in the Sun Times.

The point of getting tough on the little things isn't just to get tough on the little things for no reason. It's either because the little things are bad (like people pissing on your front door) or because the little things are part of a greater problem (like subway turnstile jumping was in New York City).

Broken Windows is not Zero Tolerance. Broken Windows is a strategy that respects police officers (by encouraging officer discretion) and the community (by listening to the community). Broken Windows is about problem solving and reducing crime. Zero Tolerance is about enforcing rules to increase police "stats."

You can read the original 1982 Broken Windows article here. It's a classic.