City of St. George, Utah :: St. George Police Department

St. George

Police Department

200 East 265 North

St. George, UT 84770

(435) 627-4301

Fax:(435) 627-4375

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THE BROKEN WINDOWS POLICING PHILOSOPHY

This idea was born in the 1990’s and is the application of a philosophy that directs officers’ efforts to the roots of crime. For the previous thirty years police departments had moved into the professional policing model, which essentially moved officers away from the public and into their cars, responding nearly exclusively to 911 calls. In the mean time “the little things” that were thought to be unimportant fell by the wayside.

In time it became apparent that those little things were much more important to citizens than we thought. Abandoned cars, eyesore properties, graffiti, noise and litter affected most of the people most of the time, unlike the category one crimes of murder, rape, robbery etc.

Probably the best known example of this policing model in action came in New York City in the 1990’s. Then Transit Authority Chief, William Bratton, began to target the smaller issues affecting subway goers such as graffiti, fare jumpers and aggressive panhandlers. Before long the subway system was safe again, robberies dropped off and rider ship went up. With increased rider ship, revenues went up and people began to feel better about New York in general. Chief Bratton then became the Commissioner of the NYPD. These efforts were duplicated on the streets of New York. Crime plummeted, New York not only felt safer it was safer.

Here at the St. George Police Department we feel that if this type of policing philosophy can reverse crime trends and bring about law and order in a city like New York, it will surely work to maintain the wonderful quality of life we all enjoy in our community.

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