I'm angry. On a sunny day last week, my mother-in-law left her house at the end of a cul-de-sac in far west Little Rock to have lunch with a friend who was visiting from Washington, D.C. During the short time they were gone, one or more intruders kicked in the front door, ransacked the house and took items worth thousands of dollars. This crime occurred in the middle of the day on a Monday, mind you.
I've always tried to promote the benefits of living in Little Rock. When my mother-in-law retired from the Securities and Exchange Commission, she chose to move to Arkansas' capital city to be near her only child and two grandchildren. I have to believe she's now questioning her decision. And that friend from Washington, who had a number of personal items stolen, likely has gone back to the nation's capital to talk about what a dangerous city Little Rock has become.
It's easy for someone to say: "There goes another white guy from west Little Rock who doesn't care about crime until it affects his family." For several years, though, I've thought about Little Rock's image and the effect of crime ratings. The city regularly appears on lists of the nation's most dangerous places. In May, Movoto Real Estate listed Little Rock as the most dangerous mid-sized city in America, ahead of No. 2 Flint, Mich., and No. 3 Jackson, Miss. City officials point to outdated statistics and differences in the way crimes are reported in various jurisdictions.
When I worked in politics, a common refrain was: "Perception is reality." Regardless of the criteria used or how dated the statistics are, the national perception is that Little Rock has a crime problem. That, in turn, becomes an economic development problem. Yes, much of the crime in Little Rock is black-on-black crime in low-income neighborhoods. Yes, the chances of those who don't live in those neighborhoods becoming crime victims are relatively low. Yes, people in the city's wealthier neighborhoods are guilty of not focusing on the crime problem until it affects them. What everyone must realize is that in terms of lost economic development opportunities, crime in Little Rock affects us all.
You don't think perception is important? Consider the Jonesboro miracle. Jonesboro has had explosive growth in recent years. Let's take nothing away from that city's leaders, who have done things right. But also consider the importance of perception. For decades, folks in northeast Arkansas gravitated toward Memphis. During the past several decades, the perception has grown that Memphis is dangerous. People in places like Imboden and Leachville, who once went to Memphis to visit the doctor or for a night out on the town, now go to Jonesboro. The perception of Memphis has thus fueled the Jonesboro miracle.
Is Little Rock going to be more Nashville or more Memphis? Is it going to be more Austin or more Jackson, Miss.? The answer to those questions will have far more to do with reducing crime than it has to do with tech parks, the so-called Creative Corridor on Main Street or the Arkansas River Trail.
I've been in Little Rock since 1989, when I returned after having spent several years in Washington--then touted as the nation's murder capital--as a correspondent for the Arkansas Democrat. I've raised my family here. I plan to stay here. I'm a cheerleader for the downtown renaissance, the expanding system of trails and the other things that led to Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranking Little Rock No. 1 on its list of "America's 10 Great Places to Live" in July 2013. Which list do you think potential new residents and business owners looking to expand pay more attention to? Lists like the one Kiplinger's put out or lists of the most dangerous cities?
Kenton Buckner, the new Little Rock police chief, is one of the most important men in the state right now. Buckner began work at the end of June, replacing Stuart Thomas, who had served as chief since March 2005. Buckner has said that he subscribes to intelligence-led policing that focuses on gathering, analyzing and disseminating information. I hope he and other city leaders also will practice the "broken windows" philosophy originally put forth by professors George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in The Atlantic in 1982. They wrote: "If a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken." Two New York City police commissioners, William Bratton and Raymond Kelly, used that theory to turn that city around.
While they're at it, Buckner, City Manager Bruce Moore and Mayor Mark Stodola might even look at the Safe Streets Program instituted by Albuquerque, N.M., in the late 1990s. The theory was that people in other parts of the country use roadways much like New Yorkers use subways. Lawlessness on the roadways therefore has the same effect as it does in the subways of New York.
Three years ago this month, Little Rock voters increased the sales tax by a cent. Though the extra penny is funding things such as the technology park and parks improvements, that's not why it passed. It passed because a majority of residents realized that police cars were falling apart, the police headquarters was filled with mold and the communications system was on its last legs. The city fathers can build all of the tech parks they want. They can add more trails. But until they find a way to further reduce crime--and end the perception of the capital city as a dangerous place to live or visit--nothing else they do is really going to matter.
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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas' Independent Colleges and Universities. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 09/17/2014