Public safety means more than just cops

Amidst a $212 million dollar budget deficit, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has proposed to lay off a total of 4,000 City employees.

Not one of them was from the police department.

Villaraigosa made a firm promise in November to keep at least 9,963 cops if not grow them.  His administration has cited a 9% drop in crime and a dwindling murder rate as evidence of success.

"Public safety is the first obligation of government," he told a group of business leaders at an L.A. Chamber of Commerce town hall meeting.

"When you don't have safe streets, everything falls apart. People become isolated. Kids turn into prisoners. Jobs evaporate. Families struggle just to survive. Public safety is the foundation of everything we are trying to build here in the City of Angels."

The Los Angeles Police Department and Fire Department account for 70% of the City's expenses and for over 40% of the City government workforce.  Earlier this month, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said that a freeze on LAPD hiring would save the city over $69.3 million dollars.

Perspective:  So who's checking the LAPD?

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents the Los Angeles Police Department, is quite clearly in Villaraigosa's ear.

Last year they tried to shut down a newspaper...in San Diego.

Way back in May 2009 before worker furloughs, they were already advocating the slashing of other City departments.

 Gee, I didn't know the police's job was to run the city.

Sure enough, what they wanted in May 2009 seems to be materializing in February 2010 amidst the budget shortfall.  Must be pretty demanding to be both enforcing the law and now, trying to making it as well.  Small wonder they are viewed as the "core services" of the city, immune to layoffs and virtually all economic pressure.

Police Chief Charlie Beck seemed to almost threaten Villaraigosa in a meeting last Tuesday when he suggested that the 9% drop in crime could increase should the police force be reduced.  

Because the LAPD collects the statistics, it's not like anyone outside of the LAPD could even call him out for a "coincidental" increase in crime should the police union be upset in the slightest way.

As a result of this political strong-arming, "public safety" for the Villaraigosa administration and many cities seems to mean a narrow-minded, male-centric, euphemistic solution for chasing gangs and taggers.

A game of cops and robbers --- only they're playing with actual money that could go to saving any one of the freshly defunct City departments for Environmental Affairs or Human Services instead.

The Community Living Room:  a more comprehensive "public safety"

Cops can mean well.  They are some of the first people I would go to if my bike was stolen, even if they prove to ultimately be unhelpful.

However, by definition, they are a reactionary institution, not so much an institution that proactively seeks to prevent crime. 

Depending on police to solve all crime problems is equivalent to depending on emergency room doctors to be primary care doctors --- it's expensive, it's not their job, creates a culture reliant on catastrophe to get any attention, and much better if we prevent the catastrophic stuff from happening in the first place.

Crime prevention and public safety happens in many ways.  "Safe streets" don't just happen because people with guns, nightsticks, menacing stares, and power trips are always threatening to beat some teenagers into submission. 

If Villaraigosa's goal is really "public safety" in the form of "safer streets", the city of LA can do a lot more towards reaching that goal. 

I said that "public safety" as currently configured is a  "male-centric" solution for a reason. 

If you take a step back, the friction you see between the police and gangs is essentially a bunch of older guys barking at young guys.  Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief of Police Charlie Beck, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, less there's something we don't know about --- all guys.  Gangleaders, gang members --- usually all guys too.

I don't notice too many women involved in these public safety conversations, unless they are UCLA Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris.  

Subject to more threats of attack, women, along with seniors, children, and the disabled would have a better idea of "safer streets" than males.  Architect Doug Suisman once said that the best measure of a safety of a public space is to see how many females to males are in a certain area.  The more females, the more successful.

Most Able-bodied adult males are more likely to be immune and indifferent to such everyday threats.  Not many people want to pick fights with them, whereas women, seniors, and children generally present more of an easy target for criminals.

"Safe streets" as it applies to the general public happen when more vulnerable members of the population feel free to take public transit, walk, and bike.

This feeling could be created by enhancing environmental design, which includes increasing visibility of a space throughout all times of the day and making room for sitting areas. 

The best way to perceive solutions to public safety is to envision cities not as voids and mazes for cops and robbers, but as "community living rooms." 

A "living room" is every person's responsibility to maintain (even the guests), and a place to relax.

Everyone in the community from waste collectors to school children can play their part in creating community living rooms.  Streets can be creatively painted over, which could give opportunity to LA's many talented muralists.   Creative "furniture" could be added to make sidewalks more lively. 

A "living room" could also simply be a place or places where neighbors and friends congregate.  That could be in libraries, parks, sidewalks.

An example of neighbors and friends congregating was provided by one of Villaraigosa's programs called Summer Night Lights. Summer Night Lights kept 16 public parks in South LA open until midnight during the Summer in hopes of dissuading youth from joining gangs. 

Villaraigosa cited an 86% drop in homicide and 17% drop in gang violence as a result of the implementation of this program.

While there is police presence during these Summer nights, there is also an entire community --- visible and outside late at night, coming together and watching out for each other.  The public space is a form of prevention, or aversion of disaster.

If this program were more of a fixture, maybe the artists who actually participate in the program would even get compensation. 

Public safety also includes preventing car accidents

Strikingly, the "safe streets" Villaraigosa espouses also doesn't include addressing the actual streets.   Motor vehicles crashes are the fastest rising cause of death, the #3 cause of premature deaths in LA County, and the #1 cause of deaths for teens nationwide.

Creating safer streets means lowering the speed limits on streets.  When cars exceed 20 mph, the pedestrians and cyclists become uneasy.  It's no wonder, because 85% of individuals will die if struck by a motorist cruising along at 40 mph.

However despite this common knowledge, there have still been proposed ordinances before City Council to raise the speed limits along crucial bikeways such as Chandler Blvd and Riverside Drive in the San Fernando Valley. 

Pedestrians are almost as vulnerable to being killed by a driver than a gang-related incident. In 2008, there were a total of 244 motor-related pedestrian fatalities in LA.  Assuming that each fatality costs $3.3 million, fatalities cost LA around $820 million a year, more than enough to shore up the City's $212 million dollar budget deficit.

Streets considered to be world-class tend to have more pedestrians than cars. 

Creating the "community living room" means making the city more walkable or walking-friendly.  A living room is easy to glide through and is a space where no one is threatening. A walkable city has people spending time gliding through town. 

If Villaraigosa is interested in maintaining the LA community living room and its safety, perhaps it's best he stop the furious chasing and running around, both from police chases and reckless car driving. 

Public safety is a foundation supported not just by police, but by everyone else in the living room.  If people coming together can calm down the kids, and slow the action, people can actually live peacefully in the big room that is Los Angeles.

Correction:  An earlier version of this article incorrectly referenced LAPD Chief Charlie Beck as LAPD Chief Glenn Beck.