ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Fixing Public’s ‘Broken Windows’ : Santa Ana Civic Center disorder is a ‘broken window’ that invites more antisocial behavior if not fixed by police.

The issue the community of Santa Ana is facing is one of crime and disorder. Recently, attention has been focused on events occurring in our Civic Center, the seat of Orange County’s government. Thousands of people from all walks of life frequent the area daily. Workers, schoolchildren, the elderly and individuals of all ages are conducting business or enjoying a visit.

When disorderly behavior in the Civic Center or anywhere else goes unchallenged the message is clear that no one cares. If allowed to persist, disorder escalates and serious crime soon follows.

Urinating in public, drunkenness, aggressive panhandling, rude and sexually offensive remarks and vandalism are some of the many disorders witnessed daily by people in the heart of our city. The stench of human waste is repugnant; the possibility of being accosted is frightening, and an extreme atmosphere of disarray is prevalent. The purpose of our enforcement efforts has consistently been to reinstate the public order that has noticeably evaporated. We are repairing the “broken windows.”

Two well-recognized figures in the field of policing, James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, first documented the “broken windows” phenomenon in an article published in 1982. When the first window is broken in a building and it is not repaired, the people will conclude that no one cares about the building and more windows will be broken. Eventually the building will have no windows and the condition will be compounded by more serious damage.

Similarly, when disorderly behavior is allowed to flourish it becomes the “broken window.”

The level of disorder in the Civic Center is rising. Serious crime, assaults, thefts, rapes and robberies are also increasing. Coincident with these documented increases in unruly behavior and major wrongdoings has been an increase in fear.

Pressing personal concerns have been conveyed to me by the community. Wilson and Kelling cite research results which confirm what working police officers already know: Even though many people are frightened by crime, especially crime involving a sudden, violent attack by a stranger, we cannot overlook or forget that a source of substantial, real fear is the dread of being accosted by disorderly people, by people who are inebriated, throw trash on the ground, openly urinate and defecate in public places, or who aggressively beg.

This fear not only has been related to me as a police chief but also has been described in many recent media reports. It is more than mere disapproval of offensive behavior. Sociologist Nathan Glazer, describing subway graffiti, portrayed its existence as an inescapable knowledge that the environment that must be endured has become “uncontrolled and uncontrollable, and that anyone can invade it to do whatever damage and mischief the mind suggests.”

This fear is based on a visceral intuition, all too frequently confirmed by subsequent reality, that when we allow unruly conduct to flourish severe crime problems quickly ensue. The reality of serious crime is with the Police Department every day. This fuels our fundamental duty to safeguard lives and property.

My reaffirmation of the public’s control of their space is an emphasis on crime prevention. By seeking to decrease the visible signs of disorder, I am striving to prevent the Civic Center from becoming a haven for those who are looking for easy targets of prey.

Throughout history, whenever people have lived together they have found it necessary to develop rules of conduct. Contemporary American laws, based on English common law, may be traced back more than 3,600 years ago to the ancient times of Hammurabi. In our democratic society we are governed by the Constitution of the United States. Federal, state and local laws are designed to maintain order, discourage violence and to safeguard lives and property. Police are ethically bound to uphold the laws of the land.

I am not pursuing a campaign to drive any specific group from the Civic Center area. My intent and purpose is to reestablish the rules of conduct, which all people expect in a civil society.

The standards of behavior I am rebuilding are not ones that have been created by the police. We are enforcing norms that have been established by our community through their elected representatives, which have been codified in ordinances and laws. Observance of these regulations indicates to everyone that this space is safe and secure. If anyone doubts that these norms have been increasingly unobserved, they need only to ask the many who recently viewed an amorous couple mating in full daylight view.

The Civic Center was not designed as a campground. It is unfortunate that a segment of our society has been driven to seek shelter here. But the police must insist that the area is safe for those who are observing our community standards of behavior. Continually increasing disorder in the area, left unchecked, will not only lead to more serious crime but also certainly contribute to the belief that democratic government has become totally futile.

If the very seat of government is characterized by unruliness, how can we be expected to police our neighborhoods, or confront the many other problems that by consensus we have been asked by our community to address? Our responsibility is to maintain order and to prevent future problems by fixing those “broken windows” wherever we find them.