UPDATED: Over the weekend, Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Robert Jamieson bemoaned recent crimes and disturbances in Seattle's vibrant Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, near the Space Needle and Seattle Center. The Queen Anne News had earlier reported on violence at the iconic Dick's Drive-In in LQA. Things have been getting out of hand, so Jamieson's general point is well-taken, But Aurora Avenue North and points west of there are even worse, and Jamieson missteps badly with an attempted cute outro suggesting that LQA is becoming more like New York. Hey: if only Seattle would emulate New York on crimefighting.

City population figures and categorical reported crime totals I extracted from (Table 6 in) the mammoth FBI document "Crime In The United States - 2004" show New York City has a remarkably low annual rate of property crime, 21.1 per thousand residents, versus Seattle's rate of 74.3, and versus the national property crime average rate of 49.6 per thousand residents in cities 250,000 or larger (Table 16).

Remarkably, New York's 2004 motor vehicle theft rate is the second lowest in the nation among cities 250,000 or larger - a scant 2.6 per 1,000 residents, trailing only Virginia Beach in its size class, and markedly lower than both the national average of 8.73 per thousand residents for cities 250K+ and Seattle's worrisome rate of 16 per thousand. (Law enforcement sources tell me the Seattle drug dealing rings and drug users are involved in many local car thefts).

New York's 2004 violent crime rate was 6.87 per thousand versus 6.59 for Seattle, essentially a wash. (National average for top-tier cities: 9.32 violent crimes per thousand residents). Of course, understaffed Seattle police sometimes actively discourage reporting of muggings.

(The 2005 "Crime In the United States" final report is not out yet; the full-year version is typically issued in October of the following year. But the FBI's 2005 Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report was released in June, and the table for cities 100,000 population and greater titled "Offenses Known To Law Enforcement" shows crime rising in Seattle and dropping in New York).

Effective urban policing is multi-facted. Operational anti-crime strategies, use of computer technology, arrest rates and police manpower all factor in to keeping the neighborhoods and streets of major American cities safe. New York does particularly well on all counts. In terms of manpower, Detective John Sweeney, of the NYPD's Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, tells me New York City has 37,000 sworn police personnel. Factored into a population of 8.1 million, that's 4.5 per 1,000 residents, significantly exceeding the 2004 national average of 2.8 per thousand for first-tier cities (Table 71, Crime In The United States, 2004), and doubling Seattle's weak per capita commitment of 2.25 sworn officers per thousand residents.

Of course in all larger cities, many sworn personnel are on special assignments, not beat patrol; but generally speaking, the more sworn (non-civilian) police personnel, the better.

In contrast to New York, Seattle does a poor to middling job utilizing technology to boost its crime-fighting capabilities, based on my interviews of department and mayoral staff. The Seattle Police Department gamely compiles monthly data on reported violent and property crimes. These include murder, rape, robberies, different types of burglaries and thefts, and aggravated assaults. Top police brass, commanders, the mayor and some city council members participate in monthly "Crimewatch" meetings - internal reviews of the last month's crime data, analyzed versus a year ago, citywide and in each of the city's five broadly-drawn police precincts. Monthly crime data is also provided for individual census tracts. Additionally, limited real-time mapping of crime hot spots is done at police headquarters, mainly by the department's narcotics unit.

Still, all this is a far cry from actual implementation of one key component of best-practices urban police management: the Compstat system. Pioneered in New York City under then-Police Chief William Bratton and then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani starting in 1994, Compstat can be used to provide weekly reports on crime in each of a city's patrol sectors, providing greater flexibility and demanding greater accountability from commanders for crime prevention.

In contrast to Seattle's once-monthly crime strategy meetings, the NYPD holds twice-weekly crime strategy sessions in the department's high-tech command center, with top command, precinct and other unit commanders (including those representing schools, housing and transit agencies). They have available the weekly crime data for the city's 76 precincts, on a week-to-date, prior 30 days, and year-to-date basis, all compared to the previous year. Hot spots, immediate management objectives and successful strategies are shared.

Notably, integration of week-to-date figures on misdemeanor crimes is considered an essential part of the data pool at the twice-weekly NYPD crime strategy sessions. The NYPD's Compstat Web site states: "Summons and arrest activity are also captured. Arresting or issuing summonses to those who engage in such minor violations and quality of life offenses as public drinking and public urination, panhandling, loud radios, prostitution and disorderly conduct, ensures that those behaviors are deterred even as a message of intolerance for any other incivilities is expressed. Aggressive enforcement of all statutes has been shown to restore a sense of order."

New York's robust approach to policing illustrates a civic truth that Seattle has sidestepped under at-large council elections which insulate members from neighborhood concerns: A city can successfully declare war on crime if its political leaders have the spine to do so.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SEATTLE, NEW YORK, CRIME, LOWER QUEEN ANNE, POLICE MANPOWER, PROPERTY CRIMES, MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS, FBI, COMPSTAT, SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL, ELECTIONS, ROBERT JAMIESON, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER