Hints of ‘Ferguson Effect’ reflected in local neighborhood study

There’s at least a portion of the so called “Ferguson Effect” that residents of Seattle’s International District might be able to relate to.

University of Missouri professor Richard Rosenfeld, who has been studying the aftermath of controversial incidents of police use of deadly force, told Seattle’s Morning News that crime rates in some of the country’s largest cities abruptly increased last year, after decreasing for some time. That has led to the “Ferguson Effect,” which Rosenfeld was initially hesitant to believe, but now supports.

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Rosenfeld says there are two versions of the Ferguson theory — named after the controversial shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The first being that there is more violence in some communities because police have withdrawn as tensions rise; the second is that long-standing grievances in disadvantaged communities — especially African-American communities — have led to people taking things into their own hands because they don’t trust police.

So where does the International District fit in?

A recent survey of 323 people in the neighborhood found that 41.3 percent of respondents had witnessed a non-violent crime. Of those people, 72.9 percent did not report it. About 40.4 percent said they didn’t report crime because “they did not believe there would be any follow through by the police.” Additionally, 35.1 percent did not believe the criminal act they witnessed rose to the level of needing police, while 31.9 percent believed police couldn’t do anything.

Finally, 13.5 percent of the 323 surveys admitted witnessing a violent crime with 60 percent of those not reporting it.

As for the inner cities with high crime levels, police are finding that people are reluctant to cooperate during an investigation.

“They won’t speak, even if they witnessed a crime,” Rosenfeld said. “Won’t show up in court.”

The common denominator for cities with rising crime is poverty, Rosenfeld says.

“Those cities tend to have far higher numbers of African-American residents than in those cities in which homicide didn’t go up as much,” he added.

So just what would it take to make cities with high crime levels safer? Rosenfeld says it could take a new understanding from police.

“It seems to me that the rupture in the relationship between disadvantaged minority communities and police needs to be repaired,” he said. “What we’re asking police now is difference than a generation ago.”

He says police need to take the initiative and engage with the communities they serve.

“That’s going to take some doing but it’s the only way to move forward…”

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