Focused Deterrence? Does Madison Need it?

I got this notice about a meeting about public safety and set it aside for further review and never got to it, but luckily, someone else did. So, here’s a quick overview.

THE MEETING NOTICE

A safe community is everyone’s concern! That’s why United Way of Dane County is joining with Madison Police to recruit community members to take part in a new program called Focused Deterrence. The program helped cut violent crime in High Point, North Carolina by 46% making it a model for the nation.

Learn how it works, why community involvement is crucial and how you can help make this program a success in Madison. Dr. Lee Hunt Crime Analyst from High Point Police Department & MPD Lieutenant Tom Woodmansee will make a presentation followed by input and discussion from community members.

When: Monday, June 13 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Where: United Way, 2059 Atwood Avenue, Madison
Who: Social Services, Non-Profit, Faith Based Organizations and Citizens of Madison

To RSVP: Call Angela Jones at 608-246-4376 or email at angelajones@uwdc.org by Friday, June 10th

Snacks and beverages will be served!

SO, WHAT IS IT?
Thanks to the Adam Chern for this:

I am always curious when programs like this are couched in jargon. What is Focused Deterrence? I Googled the term and High Point, NC and found a long document with the following paragraphs seeming to describe the core strategy.

“The incident review identifies locations, bad players and gang members fueling the “hot spot activity”. Once individual offenders and locations are identified, we employ focused deterrence methods to them. In all cases, we begin by identifying individuals on probation, those with outstanding warrants for arrest and those who are involved in narcotics dealing and those with cases already pending in court.

A deterrence message is crafted and communicated face to face with offenders, the criminal element and community members in the targeted area. Flyers are distributed with our deterrence message. We state that acts of violence will not be tolerated. We tell offenders that the police and the community will no longer tolerate acts of violence and specifically describe what acts will get them our undivided attention. (Robbery, assault, murder, gun violence etc.)

All units involved are deployed to the “hot spot” location. Probation checks and violations are enforced. Outstanding warrants for arrest are served, drug houses are searched with warrants, street level drug arrests are made and, our message of deterrence is delivered.

Our message states, “You are getting significant police attention because of a recent act(s) of violence in our community.”(We specify the act.) “We cannot arrest everyone for every crime; however, if you commit acts of violence in our community, we will focus all of our attention and resources on you.” The flyer we distribute, depicts examples of past federal gun prosecutions and/or recent arrests in their neighborhood in response to the violent act. Offenders now know the expectation of the community and the consequences for not following it. They see that a multitude of agencies are working together with the community.

I do not pretend to have an opinion on the method, its effectiveness or implications. I just wanted to save others a bit of time if they were also curious.

Yeah, me too. Thanks Adam! Saved me some time.