Keep Crime Maps Public

The Los Angeles Police Department’s decision earlier this month to stop distributing neighborhood crime maps sends the message that communities have no role in keeping their streets safe. Clearly that’s not true. But by cutting their community allies out of the decision-making process, the LAPD brass only widens the gap between neighborhoods and the cops who patrol them.

The maps, which plot where crimes occurred with color-coded symbols, have been handed out for years. They illustrate graphically which neighborhoods have been targeted by burglars and other criminals. For instance, a block hit by car radio thieves might be covered with dots--a clear indication that residents ought to be on the lookout for strangers. Although police promise to continue handing out crime statistics, they simply don’t convey the kind of instant, visceral message possible with maps.

Police argue that the maps have always been internal documents, not for public consumption, and that a few eager officers started the trend of distributing them to homeowners associations and Neighborhood Watch groups. They point out that the maps are not as clear-cut as they appear and that the data need explanation. Plus, police officials fear that criminals might use the maps to outwit enforcement efforts. Finally, police were getting tired of fielding calls from real estate agents and private security companies using the maps to drum up business.

Frankly, Chief Bernard C. Parks and his commanders make a weak case, and neighborhood groups are right to interpret this latest move as yet another assault on community-based policing. Parks has the right and responsibility to fight crime in Los Angeles as he sees fit. Yet he risks alienating the very groups critical to maintaining peace and safety in a city as large and diverse as Los Angeles. If the maps need explanation, then explain them. Make the maps for noncommercial use only by fining firms caught using them for money-making purposes, such as alarm companies trolling for clients.

But keep the maps public.Residents have a right to know what goes on in their neighborhoods. They have a right to organize defenses such as Neighborhood Watch. The maps are not so specific that they violate the privacy of victims, as police have vaguely claimed. NorNeither do they provide criminals with any information they do not already have. If police strategy in Los Angeles is so simplistic that it can be figured out by looking at a rudimentary map of past crimes, then perhaps it’s time to reevaluate that strategy.

Los Angeles police have worked hard to reduce crime. Their efforts have helped push rates to their lowest levels in years. They had some help. The very community groups the LAPD now seeks to shut out worked right alongside officers on the street to fight back against graffiti, loitering, truancy, petty theft and all the other crime that eats away at a neighborhood. Police should seek to strengthen their relationship with the communities they serve. Keeping neighborhoods in the dark does the opposite.