There are many creative ways to inspire pro-social behavior in public places, such as greening empty lots, adding street lighting, engaging neighborhood watches and employing CCTV cameras. Likewise, citizens enjoying civil activities in shared spaces promote lawful respect among others. But the full success of these measures relies on the expectation of robust criminal justice responses — the underlying deterrent to bad conduct.
New York City’s subway system provides an illustration of these dynamics. Rampant antisocial behavior, crime, and violence was ultimately only curbed by the conscientious and systematic increase in proactive policing in the early 1990s. And patrolling infractions like loitering also allowed police to prevent larger crimes by, for example, discovering weapons on low-level offenders and deterring others from entering the subway system or entering armed.
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Hannah Meyers is director of the policing and public safety initiative at the Manhattan Institute.
This piece originally appeared in Vital City